Method and apparatus for panoplex generation and gryphing

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for obtaining a storage medium with a deeply customizable set of installed content. Soft assets (e.g., programs, songs, videos, etc.) that form the content are selected from among a much larger set of preinstalled soft assets previously stored on storage media, such as disk drives. In some embodiments, based on a user&#39;s selections, the non-selected assets are permanently erased from a storage medium, while the remaining assets are available as installed (wherein substantially no further processing is required to install them). In some embodiments, a new device uses the storage medium to provide its user with a fully functional device without the need to separately install the soft assets from a plurality of sources (e.g., from program-distribution CDROMS and the like). Some embodiments include the storage medium having the soft assets installed, and including a program that elicits selections from a user and erases non-selected assets.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This invention claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application60/753,635 filed Dec. 22, 2005 entitled “RAPID DISPENSING OF STOREDDIGITAL CONTENT”, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/747,201filed May 14, 2006 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVELYDISPENSING SOFT ASSETS VIA SUBTRACTIVE INSTALLATION”, which are bothhereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This application is related to:

-   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/xxx,xxx (attorney docket    5056.001US1) filed on even date herewith and entitled “APPARATUS AND    METHOD FOR SUBTRACTIVE INSTALLATION”;-   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/xxx,xxx (attorney docket    5056.001US2) filed on even date herewith and entitled “APPARATUS AND    METHOD FOR SELECTIVELY DISPENSING SOFT ASSETS”;-   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/xxx,xxx (attorney docket    5056.001US3) filed on even date herewith and entitled “METHOD AND    APPARATUS FOR REPLICATING A PANOPLEX ONTO A STORAGE MEDIUM FROM A    MASTER”;-   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/xxx,xxx (attorney docket    5056.001US5) filed on even date herewith and entitled “METHOD AND    APPARATUS FOR GRYPHING A DATA STORAGE MEDIUM”; and-   U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/xxx,xxx (attorney docket    5056.001US6) filed on even date herewith and entitled “METHOD AND    APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING ON A DATA-STORAGE MEDIUM CUSTOMIZED CONTENT    COMPRISING SELECTED ASSETS ”; which are all hereby incorporated by    reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to mass manufacturing of storagemedia (e.g., disk drives) having preinstalled data, and morespecifically to methods, computer-program products, and apparatus formanufacturing information-processing devices that include a panoplex ofsoft assets that are gryphed to form a custom-selected set ofpre-installed software and other digital assets obtained through erasingall non-selected assets.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

General-purpose computers play a material role in just about every facetof life in industrialized societies. Computers assume a wide range ofroles, from home entertainment center to communications device tobusiness tool to research workhorse to the very engines driving aninformation-based economy, among many others. However, computers arestrange beasts. For what other expensive product aimed at the generalpublic is pretty much useless out-of-the-box and dysfunctional bydesign?

The problem with general-purpose computers is that they are just that:general purpose. To serve well in any of their very specific roles, ageneral-purpose computer must be loaded, customized, and configured toachieve the specific purposes of the individual or organization buyingthe computer. The first of these annoying tasks is done most often by anend-user (who is likely to be afraid of computers, let alone have anyexpertise in computer configuration) by sequentially installing into thecomputer a set of soft assets, that is, information and contentincluding computer operating systems, programs, data, and percepta,whether in digital, analog, or other form. The second of these tasks isaccomplished by the user entering user-specific data in response toquestions and prompts that come up as the software is entered. The thirdof these tasks is typically taken care of by software, in particular,the associated program installation wizard, as it is installed.

As used herein, “percepta” are soft assets that, by convention, depictqualities, in contrast to “data” representing quantities. Perceptatypically represent simple or complex sensory stimuli, of fixed orvariable duration. Percepta are generally structured as individuallyselectable items of self-describing content or organized sets of one ormore files. In some embodiments, percepta include digitalrepresentations of information, while in other embodiments, analog orother types of representations are used. Examples of percepta includestill images (including paintings, drawings, and photographs),motion-picture and sound files depicting cinema and video, e-books,radio programs, music, ring tones, virtual-reality simulations, computergames, and fonts. In some embodiments, percepta may includerepresentations of other senses, including touch, taste, motion, smell,proximity, temperature, and direction.

Several factors make appropriate customization by the end-userinconvenient and problematic. First, end-user choices are unfortunatelylimited by the characteristics of existing content-distributionchannels. Content is obtained by uploading from physical storage, forexample, from an optical-storage disk (e.g., a CD, DVD or HD-DVD) thatis part of a “shrink-wrap” boxed product, or alternatively, downloadingcontent from a network. Therefore, content choice is highly constrained,for example, by the limited physical shelf space available at a retailerand the related cost and profitability of inventory, or by the magnitudeof the aggregate content and the bandwidth capacity of the networkconnection, if downloading.

Second, such customization is simply time-consuming. To customize acomputer, the end-user accumulates content, such as computer programs,for installation in the computer. The installation of each acquired setof content is generally additive to, and independent of, theinstallation of other content. Thus, the user acquires content, installscontent, acquires additional content, installs the additional content,and so on, until the computer attains a desired state of functionality.A fresh new computer can easily amount to a couple of days' drudgerywhile a user customizes it with even the most basic set of programs andcontent. Even with special-purpose computers such as MP3 or other audioplayers, digital personal video recorders, cellular telephones, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), digital watches, and the like, the user mustacquire content and perhaps acquire programs or other assets tocustomize the functionality of the user's special-purpose computer andmake it personally and professionally useful.

Third, customization by the end-user can destabilize the overalloperation of the computer. Over a quarter of all application failuresare traceable to installation and configuration problems. Oftentimes,installation of a computer program includes installation of multiplerequisite assets, such as fonts and required program elements that maybe shared among programs. Such required program elements include codelibraries (e.g., sets of software routines). In the Microsoft-Windowsfamily of operating systems, these libraries are called dynamic linklibraries or “DLLs”. DLLs are periodically released by their makers invarious versions, and these versions may vary in unpredictable andundocumented ways in their behavior. Thus, if installation of a newprogram installs a new DLL that overwrites and replaces a previousversion of the same DLL on which a previously installed programdepended, the proper functioning of that previously installed program isjeopardized.

Without careful attention to the preexisting resources on a computer,installation of a new program can cause intermittent instability andmalfunction in previously installed programs, conditions that can benearly impossible to diagnose and remedy. This “flaky” and annoyingphenomenon is so common in computers that it has been nicknamed, “DLLHell.”

Finally, customization of a computer by the end-user can be complicated,confusing, and demanding. Modem operating-system complexity exceeds thetechnical skills of all but a limited cadre of specially trained andcertified individuals. Installation of computer programs calls for theend-user to select from a variety of settings and choices and providesundry information. Such information can include choosing whichcomponents out of a number available are to be installed and selectingan appropriate storage region within the computer in which to installthe program. While most installation systems provide guidance to theuser in making such decisions, the instructions offered might be obscureor ambiguous, and error codes unintelligible to a layperson.

Frequently, the installation process must pause for the user to indicatea choice. A user is occasionally required to read and affirm a lengthyend-user licensing agreement. Other times, a user might need toseparately enter a long, abstract code string, the user's name andaddress, or other information for validation and activation of everyprogram. In some embodiments, the installation routine will mandate theuser to shutdown and restart the computer, adding further delay. Eachsuch action required of the end user represents undue complexity, aninconvenient delay and annoyance, and a potential source of error duringthe installation process.

The problem with computers is that, once customized for their intendeduse, they are as unique as are their respective users. While somemanufacturers of computers provide some choices for customers, thechoices are limited and rudimentary. For example, a manufacturer mightgive the customer a limited choice of operating system: (i) MicrosoftWindows XP Home, (ii) Microsoft Windows XP Professional, or (iii) none.The manufacturer might also give the customer an equally limited choiceof office suite software: (i) Microsoft Office Standard, (ii) MicrosoftOffice Professional, (iii) Microsoft Office Small Business, or (iv)none.

This generalized approach does not give a user access to the actual,specific products that they seek. Nothing currently offered by computermanufacturers even begins to address the necessary level ofcustomization one sees with computers in actual productive use. Despitesome offerings to the customer, limited to the lowest common denominatorcapable of supporting high-volume sales, customization of computers isstill largely seen as the unaided responsibility of the purchaser.

Even the limited software routinely added to a new computer constitutesa production bottleneck. Major Electronic Contract Manufacturing (ECM),Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS), or Original DesignManufacturer (ODM) companies operate facilities throughout the world. Atthe ECM, hardware assembly, for example of a desktop computer, can takeapproximately fifteen minutes. Then, with the personal computer runningfor the entire software-load process, the operating system and othersoftware are loaded, adding another ninety minutes or more to themanufacturing time. Manufacturers typically limit the choices availableto select, since a random set of soft assets takes too long to installeconomically. They then leave it to the user to install and configureany soft assets not available in their limited choices.

Introduction to the Build-to-Order (BTO) Environment

A number of patents describe attempts to improve the customization ofsoftware on computers, sometimes referred to as a build-to-orderprocess. Such a process typically uses “additive installation” whereinsoftware packages are successively loaded and/or installed on a diskdrive. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,207 “System and method ofcreating and delivering software” issued to Kroening, et al. on Jun. 27,2000, and is incorporated herein by reference. Kroening et al. describea computerized method for generating a custom software configuration fora hard drive of a computer system according to a desired softwareconfiguration defined by a purchasing customer. The system and methodutilize an image builder for creating a disk image of the desiredsoftware configuration and transferring the image to a storage device.The storage device is connected to an image server that transfers thedisk image (e.g., of a baseline software configuration) directly to thehard drive during a manufacturing and assembly process of the computersystem. Once the computer system is assembled, the image serverbroadcasts additional data (e.g., of changes corresponding to thedifference between the baseline software configuration and the desiredsoftware configuration) to the computer system via a wired or wirelessconnection.

As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,766 “Method and apparatus forwindows-based installation for installing software on build-to-ordercomputer systems” issued to Doran, Jr., et al., on May 7, 2002, and isincorporated herein by reference. Doran Jr. et al. describe a method forautomated installation of software into a computer system includingloading an operating system (OS). The OS is provided with a hook forinitiating a windows-based install of prescribed software packagesduring an operating-system setup. At least one prescribed softwarepackage and a corresponding windows-based software package installer areloaded onto the computer system. The operating-system setup is thenexecuted. Lastly, the windows-based install of the prescribed softwarepackage is initiated in response to the hook, the windows-based installbeing carried out according to the corresponding software packageinstaller.

Introduction to Install and Uninstall Processes

Other patents describe ways of installing and/or uninstalling software.For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,566 “Method and facility foruninstalling a computer program package” issued to Harikrishnan, et al.on Jun. 16, 1998, which is incorporated herein by reference.Harikrishnan et al. describe a computer program product having afacility for uninstalling itself. The facility only backs up a minimalset of files that may be affected by an installation of the computerprogram product. The facility dynamically adapts to different possibleinstallations so as to only store compressed backup copies for theparticular installation that is to be used. The facility leverages anumber of installation files to determine what files to back up. When aprogram is uninstalled, the backed-up files are restored in an attemptto return the computer system to a state that existed before the programwas installed, such that the backed-up files are again on the system intheir original form.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,035 “Method and system for custom computer softwareinstallation” issued to Nabahi on Dec. 21, 1999 and is incorporatedherein by reference. Nabahi describes a method for customcomputer-software (additive) installation using a standard rule-basedinstallation engine. Custom installation parameters are translated intoa simplified script-language file by a system administrator. A softwarepackage is installed onto a client (end user's) computer using theinstallation engine, which is executed using commands stored in arule-based instruction file. The rule-based instruction file (script)has been configured by the provider of the application software package,or created according to custom installation parameters by a systemadministrator, to control software installation by the rule-basedinstallation engine. The script controls a sequence of installationevents including (1) a file-copying event wherein files from thesoftware package are copied to the client computer, and (2) anoperating-system-modification event wherein operating-system parameterson the client computer are modified to allow execution of the softwarepackage.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,439 “File transfers using playlists” issued toChowdhury, et al. on Feb. 15, 2000 and is incorporated herein byreference. Chowdhury, et al. describe a method for transferring datafrom memory to a file decoder for further processing, for example, avideo file is decoded for presentation on a display device. A pluralityof control functions are provided for access by a user or a user systemin controlling the identity, sequence and flow of file transfers inorder to optimize transfer efficiency in a data-transfer transaction.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,754 “System, method, and program for checkingdependencies of installed software components during installation oruninstallation of software” issued to Curtis on Aug. 27, 2002 and isincorporated herein by reference. Curtis describes a method forinstalling a program onto a computer having an operating system.Dependency objects indicate a dependent component on which the programto install depends. The program processes the dependency objects beforeinstalling the program and determines an operating-system command thatis capable of determining whether the dependent component is installedin the computer. The program then executes the operating-system command.An indication is made as to which dependent components have beendetermined to be not installed.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,867 entitled “Method for providing a singlepreloaded software image with an ability to support multiple hardwareconfigurations and multiple types of computer systems” issued to Chestonet al. on Sep. 13, 2005, and is incorporated herein by reference.Cheston et al. describe a hard disk drive of a computer system that isloaded with a preloaded image including an operating system, a number ofapplication programs, and a device-driver installation routine, all ofwhich are not dependent on the hardware configuration of the computersystem. A hidden partition of the hard disk drive is also loaded with anumber of device drivers, which are dependent upon the hardwareconfiguration. During the first boot only of the preloaded image, thedevice drivers are installed by the device-driver installation routine.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/264,670 (Publication Number2003-0110241) “System, method, and computer program product foruninstalling computer software” filed by Cheng, Jr., et al. on Oct. 4,2002 is incorporated herein by reference. Cheng, Jr., et al. describe amethod to update client computers of various end users with softwareupdates for software products installed on the client computers. Thesystem includes a service-provider computer, a number of clientcomputers and software-vendor computers communicating on a network. Theservice-provider computer stores information in an update database aboutthe software updates of the diverse software vendors, identifying thesoftware products for which updates are available, their location on thenetwork at the various software-vendor computer systems, information foridentifying the software products stored in the client computers, andinformation for determining which products have software updatesavailable. The client computers connect to the service-provider computerand obtain a current version of portions of the database. The clientcomputer determines from the database which products have updatesavailable. User-selected updates are downloaded from the softwarevendors' computers and installed on the client computer. Payment for thesoftware updates is mediated by the service-provider computer.Authentication of the user ensures only registered users obtain softwareupdates. Authentication of the software updates ensures that thesoftware updates are virus free and uncorrupted. Changes to the clientcomputer during installation are monitored and archived, allowing theupdates to be subsequently removed by the user.

The above-described prior art, individually and in combination, fails toprovide manufacturers and users with an adequate platform to specify andprovide mass-produced customized digital appliances. These patents donot provide ways to quickly, economically, and reliably provide aparticular user with installed versions of just those soft assetsselected according to the user's desires from a large set of allavailable soft assets.

What is needed is an enabling technology for fast, scalable, automateddispensing of a customized set of digital software and other contentinto an information-processing device, in a non-intimidating manner thatmakes such assets immediately available for use.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method, article ofmanufacture, computer program product, and/or apparatus useful for“sideloading” soft assets into a finished device. Sideloading (unlikeother processes such as downloading software from the internet, oruploading soft assets from a CDROM) involves quickly generating astorage medium having therein a deeply customized, user-specified set ofinstalled soft assets. Coupling the storage medium, loaded withinstalled soft assets (i.e., the software), to an information-processingdevice (i.e., the hardware) makes the device operational (i.e., thehardware and software when co-functionally joined together aresubstantially ready-to-use). Sideloading provides the benefits of anexpert-optimized, user-customized installation of a uniquely selectedset of soft assets needed to make the hardware operational, without thecost and time previously required to additively install such a set ofassets. In various embodiments, different portions of the sideloadingprocess are done either before or after the storage medium is coupled tothe device.

In some embodiments, sideloading is made possible by “subtractiveinstallations” Subtractive installation presents a user with a largesuperset of soft assets (a set of maximum complexity) from which tochoose. The user chooses which assets are to be kept and non-chosenassets are removed. “Gryphing” is the term used herein as a process toremove from a storage medium, which initially had a vast array ofpreviously installed soft assets, those assets not part of the chosenset of assets to keep (or equivalently, to remove those assets that arepart of the set chosen to remove).

Gryphing involves culling assets, erasing data and/or uninstallingprograms from a directory, registry, and/or other areas of digitalstorage. With gryphing, a user chooses a subset of the soft assets forpurchase. The user pays only for the software and other soft assets sheor he desires, and all other soft assets (those not selected) are culledby the gryphing process. A typical user would not be able to afford tobuy all of the soft assets included in the superset, but benefits fromthe ability to choose, from the wide variety available, just thoseassets he or she wants to buy. The vendor benefits from the additionalsales achieved by the availability of the wide variety of soft assets.

With subtractive installation, erasing the non-selected assets isgenerally much faster than installing the selected assets in theconventional manner (called additive installation). Further, storagespace previously used for the culled portions is made available forstoring other data. Further, since the manufacturer can use experts tocreate the initial set of assets to be preinstalled on the storagemedium and to design an optimal method for uninstalling non-selectedassets, interoperability problems and configuration conflicts canlargely be eliminated.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides for receiving andinstalling a user-customized order for an information-processingappliance that is to have user-selected computer programs or other softassets, and, based on the user-customized order, uninstalling unselecteditems from a storage medium that previously held a selected superset ofavailable assets. In some embodiments selection information may betransmitted to a central server and gryphing information transmittedfrom a central server. In some embodiments, a monetary amount is chargedto the user's account based on the selection information.

In some embodiments, sideloading provides a fully customized andoperational processing device (also called an information-processingappliance) by operatively coupling a user-customizable storage medium tothe information-processing device. The device, for example, could be apersonal computer, server, MP3 player, cell phone, digital videorecorder, personal digital assistant, game console, vehicle (e.g., anautomobile having one or more processors that control the automobile'soperation, provide a database for its GPS guidance, preloadedentertainment, and model-specific maintenance documentation anddiagnostics), refrigerator, industrial tool, cash register, weapon, orthe like.

In some embodiments, the customized storage medium is formed bysubtractive installation of soft assets, wherein the storage medium ispreloaded with a superset of soft assets for possible purchase and/ordistribution (a collection of available content called a “panoplex”),and is then gryphed to remove non-selected soft assets (creating erasedspace that can then be used for other data) and to retain selectedassets (which are thereby substantially ready to use without substantialeffort or additional input from the end user). The panoplex functions asat least a part of a dispenser (an automated machine that can provide ordeliver, when spurred by human operator, something already stored in it)in that it is a virtual container so designed that its contents can beused only in prescribed amounts.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a storage mediumwith a panoplex stored thereon. The panoplex provides the superset ofsoft assets from which a customizable subset may be selected. In someembodiments, the storage medium in that initial state is considered tobe an intermediate workpiece; one that has been partially processedaccording to the present invention to copy the superset of assets ontothe storage medium, but which needs further processing to remove thoseassets not selected for retention and/or to enable for use those assetsselected for retention. Alternatively, in some embodiments, such acombination might be an end product itself.

In other embodiments, the customized storage medium is formed, at leastin part, by additive installation of soft assets (e.g., softwareprograms, control algorithms, music, video, still images, databases, andthe like) to the storage medium by copying sets of files and modifyingoperating-system parameters. In some embodiments, additive installationis used after the subtractive installation described above, for programsor other soft assets that happen not to be in the original panoplex andfor user-specific information.

In some embodiments, sideloading using subtractive installation providesuser-selected content dispensed from a storage medium into which asuperset (a “panoplex”) of available content had previously beenreplicated. A non-selected portion of the available content issubsequently removed by gryphing, leaving the selected content availableand/or installed on the storage medium. Selected content is, in effect,“installed” by removal of non-selected content, as the gryphed storagemedium is functionally equivalent to a storage medium to which selectedsoft assets have been properly incrementally installed in a manner thatoptimizes compatibility and/or the order of installation.

Optionally, other selected content is then incrementally installed tothe gryphed storage medium. The gryphed storage medium (for example, anoptical disk or disk drive (ODD), magnetic disk drive, or solid-statememory (e.g., FLASH or holographic memory)) is incorporated within adevice (for example, a computer, music player, video player, cell phoneor hybrid cell-phone that also plays stored music) that canappropriately operate and process such content (such as computerprograms, music or video), making the selected content available to anend-user of the device. Such optimal coupling of customized content witha suitably operational device creates an information-processingappliance with appliance-like ease-of-use.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method thatincludes generating a panoplex that includes a universe of separatelyselectable installed soft assets, copying the panoplex to each one of aplurality of information-processor-usable, end-user storage media,obtaining a first set of selection data that distinguishes “ipselecta”(i.e., a first subset of the plurality of installed soft assets that areto be retained) from “relicta” (i.e., a second subset of the pluralityof installed soft assets that are not to be retained, to berelinquished, or let go), gryphing a selected first end-user storagemedium (culling, erasing and/or uninstalling the relicta from theend-user storage medium as specified by the selection data), anddelivering the gryphed end-user storage medium (e.g., delivering it toan end user). In some embodiments, the method also performs one or moreauthorization functions that enable operability of the ipselecta on thestorage medium, and/or one or more exclusion functions that help ensurethat the relicta remain erased, unavailable and/or inoperable.

In some embodiments, a charging mechanism charges or debits an accountof the user for the retained content (e.g., an exchange of money for theretained assets), based on the selection data. In some embodiments,gryphing also includes checking whether this particular user isauthorized to receive certain of the selected assets, and gryphing mayrequire a specific authorization code (or the like) to be provided inorder to unlock those certain ones of the selected assets. In someembodiments, unless a specific authorization code were provided, certainassets would be excluded from the list presented to, or selectable by,the user of the superset of assets from which she or he could select.This could be useful in military or police situations if an officer isto be provided a weapon having a wide variety of software-enabledcapabilities from which to select, but certain ones of those functionsrequire specific permission or authorization from superiors based on thesituation before they could be selected (e.g., an exchange ofauthorization for the retained assets).

Thus, the ipselecta are individually user-determined notional bundles ofcontent. In some embodiments, the first end-user storage medium isselected, based on a fit to the first set of selection data (e.g., froma first customer's choices), from among a plurality of different storagemedia, each of which has a different one or more panoplexes storedthereon. In some embodiments, the list of selections shown to aparticular user may be limited based on a criteria determined by theseller or provider (e.g., a retail outlet having a special sale thatexcludes certain assets otherwise available on the panoplex, or acorporation that limits, or requires management authorizations for, theselections available to its employees of certain departments or ranks ordivisions) or by the purchaser (e.g., someone who only wishes to seeselections from hip-hop, blues, or jazz).

In some embodiments, a second storage medium is selected, based on asecond set of selection data from a second customer's choices. Thesecond storage medium is then gryphed to obtain a different ipselectafor the second customer's device. The present invention thus provides amethod to flexibly and dynamically dispense software and/or multimediain a wide variety of such notional bundles or suites that the userschoose, rather than in a limited choice of pre-packaged bundles proposedby the vendor.

In some embodiments, a single device will connect to a plurality ofstorage media, each containing a portion of the ipselecta (e.g., apersonal computer with two or more disk drives, or a music play havingan internal disk drive plus a socket for a removable flash drive) andthe device operates to provide availability of the soft assets on allthe attached media. In some embodiments, the dispensing computeroperates to gryph a plurality of storage media substantiallysimultaneously (e.g., to gryph a plurality of disk drives that willconnect to a personal computer for one user, or to gryph different diskdrives or different media to form ipselecta for a plurality of differentusers getting different devices).

In some embodiments, the generating of the panoplex includes providing acomputer system having an operating system and an installation storagemedium, and using the operating system and/or other software to installa plurality of soft assets onto the installation storage medium toinitially create a master panoplex. This one-time master-panoplexcreation allows experts at the manufacturer or a supplier to select anoptimal order and internal storage configuration for installation. Theycan also determine, adjust, and fix interdependencies and otherinstallation problems among a large number of potentially desiredprograms and/or other soft assets.

The panoplex can vary by operating system and file system, device typeand media file type, storage media and copying methods (e.g., fixed,removable, hard disk drive, FLASH, and/or optical), the number ofpanoplexes installed per device, the sequencing and staging of steps,the location and party undertaking the steps, the degree of methodrefinement, various combinations of panoplexes, stub installs (installsof software that facilitate activation of already copied software and/ordownloads of software and/or upgrades, compliance checking (whether eachsoft assets complies with a standard that helps ensure interoperabilityand functionality of various combinations of software), and/or whetherthe installation of the soft assets is part of manufacturing new devices(such as new personal computers, cell phones, or music players),manufacturing of upgrade devices (such as disk drives or FLASH memoriesthat can be attached to existing personal computers, cell phones, ormusic players to upgrade their capabilities), or upgrade done at aretail establishment (such as erasing, formatting and reloading of astorage medium in an existing computer).

The panoplex can be copied en masse to a storage medium that is latergryphed to obtain a user-selected subset of soft assets customized tothe choosing of a particular end-user. Each purchaser of a device (e.g.,computer hardware) can pick-and-choose any subset of the soft assets(e.g., software needed to make the hardware useful) to purchase and/orotherwise retain. Some embodiments include selecting among a pluralityof storage media to find one having a panoplex that includes as many ofthe user's choices as possible. The panoplex is then gryphed based onthe customer-selected set of soft assets, such that the non-selectedassets (the “relicta”) are erased and/or uninstalled, and the selectedassets (the “ipselecta”) are delivered to the user as part of aready-to-use “new” device. The resulting devices using that storagemedium are more reliable than if each end-user were to randomly selectan order of installation and additively install a corresponding set ofsoft assets, and are much more quickly generated than if themanufacturer or end user were to individually install the selectedsubset of assets even if that were done in an optimal order.

In some embodiments, two or more panoplexes are stored on a masterstorage medium. A first selected panoplex is copied from the masterstorage medium onto each of a first plurality of end-user storage media,and a second selected panoplex is copied onto each of a second pluralityof end-user storage media. In some embodiments, a selected panoplex iswritten to a selected plurality of end-user storage media as a lastoperation in a manufacturing and testing process for a disk drive orother storage medium. Normally, a set of zeros or some other blank datapattern (i.e., typically not programs or other soft assets are the lastdata written to the entire data area of the disk, and this last patternis read and its data compared to the data intended to be written. Insome embodiments, the writing and reading of the panoplex replaces orfollows this last operation.

In some embodiments, one or more data-encryption, sequestering, or otherprotection methods are used to obscure and prevent access to the softassets contained within the panoplex on the end-user storage mediaunless and until a gryphing program is run on each end-user storagemedium. In some embodiments, a “blank” directory structure is written toa default location used by an operating system for the directory of theend-user storage medium, such that the storage medium appears to theoperating system and user to be substantially blank if used as is bythat operating system. In some embodiments, actual directory data forthe panoplex is written elsewhere on the end-user storage medium or onan external storage device, such that the gryphing program can accessthe panoplex directory data, gryph it, and write it to the defaultlocation used by the operating system for its directory.

In some embodiments, a selection program presents to a user aninteractive user interface that facilitates selection of the soft assetsto be retained in the ipselecta. In some embodiments, aprice/profit-optimization/maximization program is coupled with theselection program to effectively provide different prices for aparticular soft asset based on such information as the relative “value”of the particular customer, the other assets, products and servicesselected for purchase, the overall price and/or profitability of allgoods selected, seasonal and/or other temporal information, promotions,sales, or the relationship of a company's current achieved performancemetrics to their projected objectives, and the like.

The subtractive installation “choose-and-remove” approach represents asignificant paradigm shift away from the conventional additive approachto digital-content installation (that of incrementally adding desiredcontent until all desired content is stored), to that of the presentinvention's gryphing technique, which is more akin to the classicalsculptor's approach—“I saw the angel in the marble, and I carved until Iset him free,” as practiced by Michelangelo. For the present invention,the creation of the panoplex is like providing a raw block of marble(which can be carved into any desired form by removing unwanted marblechips). The culling of unselected assets to obtain a storage medium withonly the desired soft assets is like carving away the unwanted marble toleave the desired statue of the angel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a sideloading process 189 for dispensingsoft assets into a personal computer or similar information-processingdevice.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram of a sideloading process 190 for dispensingsoft assets into a percepter or similar device.

FIG. 1C is a flow diagram of a process 130 for dispensing soft assetsinto a storage medium 150.

FIG. 1D is a flow diagram of a gryphing process 152.

FIG. 1E is a flow diagram of a network-activated gryphing process 155.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a panoplex-generation andpanoplex-gryphing process 200 for creating a storage medium 150 having acustomized and/or user-selected set of soft assets.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of another panoplex-generation andpanoplex-gryphing process 204 for creating a storage medium 150 having acustomized and/or user-selected set of soft assets.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram of a storage device 260 (e.g., embodied on adisk drive 261) having a self-contained gryphing program 240.

FIG. 2D is a block diagram of a storage device 270 (e.g., embodied on asolid-state drive 271) having a self-contained gryphing program 240.

FIG. 2E is a block diagram of gryphing process 280 used on a storagedevice 231.

FIG. 2F is a block diagram of intransient signal carrier 290 used for astorage device 231.

FIG. 2G is a block diagram of a process 288 to process a blankoplex 253used for a storage device 236.

FIG. 3A is a Venn diagram of a set of soft assets 300.

FIG. 3B is a Venn diagram of a set of soft assets 350 selected andgryphed.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of a process 100 for duplication of a masterdisk containing a panoplex to be customized and installed in a computer.

FIG. 4B is a logic flow diagram of one embodiment of the customization410 of the duplicated panoplex.

FIG. 4C is a logic flow diagram of content distribution 430, includingcustomization in the manner shown in FIG. 4B.

FIG. 4D is a block diagram illustrating some of the components 400 ofthe dispensing computer 102 of FIG. 4A.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the panoplex 502 duplicated in FIG. 4A,FIG. 4B, and FIG. 4C in one illustrative embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of system-customization logic 600 of FIG. 4Din greater detail.

FIG. 7 is a logic flow diagram illustrating creation 700 of the panoplexof FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a logic flow diagram illustrating customization 800 of thepanoplex of FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 shows, in diagrammatic form, the customization 900 of a panoplexfor storage in a disk of insufficient capacity to store the panoplex inits entirety.

FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 illustrate various panes of a window 1000 and 1100in a graphical user interface for selection of soft assets of apanoplex.

FIG. 12 is a state diagram of various selection states 1200 supported inthe graphical user interface shown in FIG. 10 and FIG.11.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a pricing engine 1300 for determining aprice of selected soft assets of the panoplex.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a validation process 1400.

FIG. 15A is a flow diagram of a subtractive-installation method 1501.

FIG. 15B is a block diagram of a system 1502

FIG. 15C is a flow diagram of a method 1503.

FIG. 15D is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method 1504.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of a fast-secure erase method 1600.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Although the following detailed description contains many specifics forthe purpose of illustration, a person of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that many variations and alterations to the following detailsare within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the followingpreferred embodiments of the invention are set forth without any loss ofgenerality to, and without imposing limitations upon the claimedinvention.

In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments,reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof,and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments inwhich the invention may be practiced. It is understood that otherembodiments may be utilized, and that structural, sequential, andtemporal changes may be made without departing from the scope of thepresent invention.

The leading digit(s) of reference numbers appearing in the Figuresgenerally corresponds to the Figure number in which that component isfirst introduced, such that the same reference number is used throughoutto refer to an identical component that appears in multiple Figures.Trailing letters appending reference numbers generally refer tovariations of embodiments regarding a component or process. Signals andconnections may be referred to by the same reference number or label,and the actual meaning will be clear from its use in the context of thedescription.

Subtractive Installation

In the personal-computer and other industries, conventional devices(such as automobiles, mini-tower PCs, or video-cassette recorders(VCRs)) were designed based on a maximally-featured model that, whenfully populated with hardware (chips, switches, DVD drives, diskettedrives, fog lights, radios, read heads, and/or other parts), wouldprovide that design for maximum feasible functionality. Lower-costmodels were then derived from the top model (which provided holes andwires) by not installing certain buttons or chips that activatedfunctions that were available only in the higher-priced model.Alternative faceplates or plugs for the holes were often provided forthose lower-end models.

In contrast, one unique aspect of the present invention, subtractiveinstallation, is that some embodiments actually install, on everydevice, the maximum feasible software functionality by putting auniverse of selectable soft assets (the panoplex) on a flexible base(the intransient signal carrier, in some embodiments). The panoplex isdesigned, customized and debugged to function on a predeterminedhardware base, but the panoplex of soft assets is then depopulated (atan arbitrarily fine level of granularity) to achieve the separate andindividual price and functionality point desired by each the customer.Because of the ability to quickly erase data from a storage medium, fastand efficient depopulation is feasible.

Large-scale, deep customization in which particular soft assets areincluded on a hardware/software or device/digital-asset product (i.e.,customization involving available selections numbering in the hundredsor even thousands) is substantially untenable using conventional methodsof additive soft-asset installation, owing to both the time required towrite the data content and the complexity of the additive-installationprocess and its management. For example, the interactions betweenvarious software packages that require a user to choose betweendifferent versions of the same commonly used files installed bydifferent suites of software leads to software that is broken orintermittently unreliable, depending on the selected softwarecombinations and order of installation.

Furthermore, using additive installation for deep customization provideslittle or no economies of scale, since choices made during customizedprior installations cannot be used in subsequent customizedinstallations.

Some Advantages

In contrast, some embodiments of the present invention, subtractiveinstallation, wherein a storage medium is customized by removal ofnon-selected content from a superset of available content pre-stored onthe storage medium, the removal of content from a storage medium (e.g.,by erasing and/or uninstalling) is efficient and fast, requires littlehuman interaction, and lends itself particularly well to automation. Byusing subtractive installation, substantially all the complexities ofadditive installation are isolated to a one-time process and relegatedto experts at a manufacturer when the experts create a customized localuniverse of available content, referred to herein as a panoplex. Apanoplex is instantiated (i.e., copied) onto multiple end-user storagemedia, from which different sets of extraneous content can be easilyidentified (e.g., from the logical NAND of the specific set ofselections made by a customer with the panoplex set, in someembodiments) and then automatically culled to provide easy, automatic,and scalable customization of content.

As used herein, culling includes making the relicta data unavailable andfreeing storage locations that were used for holding the relicta. Insome embodiments, culling includes any suitable method including erasingdirectory and other entries that point to the data, erasing some or allof locations holding the data, erasing decryption keys needed to decryptthe data, encrypting the data, marking the storage locations asavailable for storing other data, defragmenting the storage medium,and/or the like.

“Erasing” and “uninstalling” as used herein refer to processes thatcause transitions from normal operating-system-mediated data and programavailability, to the loss of availability and gain of related storagespace. In some embodiments, erasing manipulates the appearance of thedata (e.g., by changing a small portion of a directory entry such thatthe operating system no longer lists that data as being present, thus“erasing” or making the data “disappear”), but the data itself (otherthan the changed part of the directory entry) is typically not changed.In some cases (unless a more secure operation, such as the fast-secureerase function described below, is performed), the operating systemitself or a secondary program may be able to unerase such data, and undothe erase. “Concealing” and “obscuring” as used herein refer totechniques for creating storage holding selectively unavailable dataand/or programs.

As used herein, erasing can include writing zeros or other data patternsto some or all of the location(s) of data, thereby displacing and/oroverwriting the previous data and making that previous data unreadableand unavailable; performing an erase operation (such as are available oncertain types of electrically erasable programmable read-only memorychips) that erases one or more entire blocks of data at once; settingstatus indicators (such as setting or clearing certain bits in at leastone directory entry, and/or resetting one or more directory entries orfile-allocation-table entries or cluster pointers to a “blank” statethat removes name and/or pointer information and/or indicates thedirectory entry is available for new data) that are interpreted andenforced by operating-system software as indicating that the storagelocations of the data are not readable as data or instructions; and/orother suitable methods. In some embodiments, “erasing” can includecreating a directory that does not include directory information neededby an operating system to access certain particular data that is storedon a storage medium but that is intended to be considered as erased(e.g., soft assets that are to be relicta), but wherein the directorydoes include directory information needed by an operating system toaccess certain other data that is stored on a storage medium and that isto be considered as available (e.g., soft assets that are to beipselecta).

As used herein, “uninstalling” means transitioning from a state thatincludes changes made by installing a program to a state that would haveexisted had the program not been installed. In some embodiments,uninstalling (which removes registry information—e.g., pointers todirectories, library files, and or other information used by theoperating system to properly execute a program—and which may or may notremove directory entries or erase other data) is different from erasing(which typically removes directory information and/or sets/clears statusindicators in a directory entry but does not typically change theregistry). In some embodiments, uninstalling replaces one or morelibrary files associated with the program being uninstalled withcorresponding files that existed before the program was originallyinstalled (e.g., files installed by earlier-installed programs).

As used herein, a “new device” is one that has not been used for itsintended use by its initial end user or purchaser. A new device may,however, have been used (in a manner that utilizes or simulatesutilization of the device for its intended use) by the manufacturer orothers in the distribution and sales chain for assembly, loading ofdata, testing and/or bum-in. In some embodiments, a new storage devicemight include a used storage device that has been reformatted to a new“blank” state.

As used herein, an information-processing appliance is any type ofdigital, analog, or hybrid device that processes stored information,including general-purpose computers, special-purpose computers, embeddedcomputers, enterprise computers, servers, cell phones, wireless emailprocessors (e.g., Blackberry™-type devices), telephone switches,electronic-planner devices, GPS and/or trip-planning devices percepters,appliances (such as refrigerators, televisions, washing machines,toasters and the like that include information-processing features),machinery, vehicles, and so on. In some embodiments, theinformation-processing appliance is a storage medium (e.g., a disk driveor FLASH-type memory) that is designed to be connected to otherelectronics in order to provide its intended function.

As used herein, the terms processor, microprocessor, controller,computer and the like are circuits that process data or controloperation of a device. Each term refers to a device that may contain oneor more units that process instructions and/or one or more logiccircuits configured to perform one or more functions. In variousembodiments, these terms include tightly or loosely coupledmultiprocessors as well as networked processors that each performsdifferent portions of one or more overall functions. These terms are tobe interpreted in the broadest sense unless specifically narrowed bymodifying adjectives (e.g., an “electronic processor” is a processorthat operates on electronic principles, while a “processor” is not soconfined and may include one or more electrical, optical, magnetic,acoustic, quantum-spin, and/or other components). In some of the variousembodiments described herein, the described processor includes one ormore electrical, optical, magnetic, acoustic, quantum-spin, and/or othercomponents.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method whereinuser-selected content is, in effect, “installed” on a storage medium bycopying an installed superset of available content (i.e., many moreassets than would ever be selected for purchase by a typical purchaser)to the storage medium and culling non-selected portions of the availablecontent to leave the selected content. This subtractive installation tosideload content is efficient and lends itself particularly well toautomation. By using such sideloading, all the complexities of additiveinstallation need be performed only once, thus creating an optimizeduniverse of available content from which extraneous content can beremoved easily (manually or automatically), allowing customizedselections of content to be conveniently distributed. Sideloadingcontent enables customized, ready-to-use devices.

What seems counterintuitive in the subtractive installationchoose-and-remove approach—namely, initially writing extraneous contentduring manufacturing only to remove it later—produces real andsignificant benefits not achievable with conventional approaches. Withsuch sideloading of content, an end-user can quickly and convenientlyreceive a built-to-order (BTO), inexpensively mass-produced device,customized to the user's unique preference and ready-to-use.Furthermore, the selection available on the storage medium from thesuperset of available content (herein referred to as a panoplex) can beorders of magnitude greater than the choice found in an average retailstore, yet adds virtually no additional inventory-carrying cost. Forexample, a typical retail computer store may only stock an inventory onthe order of hundreds of software titles, since the store cannot affordto devote shelf space and financial resources to maintain a largeinventory of titles that sell infrequently. On the other hand, acommonly available 300-GB disk drive could hold several thousand titlesin a preloaded panoplex, and terabyte drives are forthcoming.

As used herein, a “disk drive” is an exemplary storage medium having oneor more rotating disks that store data and one or more transducers thatread data from and write data to, the one or more disks (which usemagnetic, optical, both magnetic and optical, or other suitabletechnologies). Disk drives typically include a mechanical frame andenclosure (these are sometimes merged as a single unit), one or morecircuit boards and/or flexible substrates having surface-mountcomponents soldered thereto, and disk(s) and transducer(s) inside theenclosure. The circuit-board components typically include one or moreprocessors, buffers, coder/decoders (CODECs), transducer interfaces(handling signals to and from the disk transducers), upstream interfaces(handling signals to and from external components such aspersonal-computer processors or music-player controllers, and usingprotocols such as IDE, SCSI, SATA, serial SCSI, and the like) and thelike, used to provide the functionality of the disk drive. In variousembodiments described herein, the term “disk” will be used for brevity,and from the context, one of skill in the art will recognize that thedisk may be the disk itself, removable and exchangeable from the drivedescribed and other drives (such as, for example, a DVDRW disk that canbe removably inserted into a DVDRW drive) or may be the disk driveitself, with its disk(s) permanently integrated within the drive (suchas, for example, the one or more magnetic disks in a hard-drive unit).For the embodiments that describe either a disk drive or a disk as thestorage medium, the inventor contemplates, and one of skill in the artwill recognize, that other embodiments can substitute (in place of, orin addition to, the disk or disk drive) any other suitable storagemedium, such as a solid-state memory unit (e.g., a FLASH drive) or astorage disk itself (i.e., a removable rotating medium such as a floppydisk, CDRW, DVDRW, and the like), which is designed to be removablyinserted into a drive.

For brevity, the description herein may describe duplicating or copyinga disk drive, and from the context, one of skill in the art willrecognize that it is some or all of the data on the disk that is beingduplicated or copied. Further, during such a copy, in some embodiments,the data is rearranged and/or compressed (e.g., in some embodiments, bydoing file copying through the operating system, which may place a fileonto the destination disk drive in a different location than that filewas on the source disk drive), while in other embodiments, the data iscopied “bit-by-bit” to form a exact duplicate disk drive with exactlythe same panoplex data, partition information, directory information andthe like in identical locations on the destination disk drive as it wason the source disk drive. Disk-drive-data replicaters are well known inthe art, and may be obtained, for example, from ICS (9350 Eton Ave.,Chatsworth, Calif. 91311), which makes an Industrial High-SpeedMultiple-Hard-Drive Duplicator used for hard-drive cloning, copyingdata, upgrading computers and sanitizing hard drives on the productionline of major PC Manufacturers, as well as other large- and middle-sizecorporations. Such equipment provides ease of use formultiple-hard-drive duplication in an industrial environment. It cancopy data in different modes, image hard drives of different size andmodels, erase data, copy hidden partitions, format hard drive, use anSATA adapter to copy Serial ATA Drives and has additional differentoptional software and hardware features for disk-drive cloning.

Another benefit is that erasing content from a storage medium such as adisk, in general, is significantly faster than writing the same contentto the same storage medium. Thus, if the transfer to storage of thesuperset of available content is performed ahead of time, customizationby culling of the storage medium (in order to store primarily only theselected content) can be accomplished relatively quickly and withrelatively little additional data transfer. This combination of speedand the ability to prepare panoplex copies out-of-sequence relative tothe rest of the manufacturing process is a significant factor forrelieving throughput bottlenecks when using sideloading to manufactureBTO devices.

Another benefit is that writing content to a storage medium frequentlyrequires much human guidance, while erasing of content from the storagemedium typically does not. Thus, erasure lends itself to automation muchmore so than does writing. Writing of content to a storage mediumtypically requires selection as to where, within a file systemimplemented on the storage device, the content is to be stored. If thecontent is a computer program or other content requiring someconfiguration, additional information is usually required. Erasure ofcontent typically requires no more than accurate identification of thecontent to be erased. Since only the exact assets requested remain aftergryphing, no storage space is wasted (no space is consumed by contentinitially on the storage medium but not requested or usable by theend-user). In some embodiments, erasure of various assets can also beaccomplished by simultaneously launching multiple erase threads.

Yet another benefit is the higher overall system quality achieved fromthe greater operational stability of content that remains as installedafter removal of the culled content. In storing the panoplex on thestorage medium, the creator of the panoplex has the opportunity tocontrol the computer environment and the order of installation, andoptimize the various elements of content for interoperability. One formof optimization is in the exclusion from the panoplex of soft assetslikely to interfere with proper functioning of the other soft assets ofthe panoplex. Another form of optimization is to offer programsconstructed using side-by-side isolation technologies. Other forms ofoptimization include ensuring proper installation, registration, andunregistration of shared resources.

Another Problem

A user inexperienced in software installation can introduce systeminstability by installing a new program that is not entirely compatiblewith those already installed on the computer. For example, if the useris installing a program that includes a DLL file that is older thananother version of the same DLL file already installed by a previouslyadded program, the user must choose between overwriting the newer DLLand risk impairing the operation of the previously added program, orkeeping the newer DLL and risk impairing the program now beinginstalled. However, if the various programs in a panoplex are properlycharacterized by experts who make astute choices for installation,organization, interoperability and compatibility of the entire set ofsoftware, and test the removal process, then the various subsets will becompatible. When programs are removed from the tested set of programsthat has been predetermined to be compatible and not to causecatastrophic failure when any particular program is removed from thesystem, the remaining software is unlikely to become unstable. Thus, thepractice of sideloading can put an end to DLL Hell.

More Advantages

One synergy that the present invention provides is the ability toprovide fine-grained customization of mass-produced computer equipment,including BTO devices, whereby a storage medium, used in conjunctionwith a device, becomes the vehicle for distributing content appropriatefor that device. The panoplex, once created and optimized, may bereplicated many times (and potentially in many locations) to produce aninventory of computer storage media “blanks”—blank, in thelithic-reduction sense, the same way a large block of marble is a“blank” statue until the extraneous marble is removed. In variousembodiments, a panoplex can be designed by one or more various parties,including industry specialists, disk jockeys, movie critics, chefs,corporate IT departments, school administrators, and software reviewers,on behalf of equipment manufacturers.

This potentially extensive virtual inventory takes up no additional roomor cost, over and above the otherwise required storage media. Likewise,the inventory never goes stale, as it can be recycled at negligible costsimply by overwriting it with a new panoplex. Upon receipt of an orderfor a computer with customized software installed, extraneous,non-selected soft assets are removed from a replicant blank of thepanoplex to produce the customized memory—disk, flash, optical orother—for installation into a device, quickly and in a manner amenableto automation.

Furthermore, due to the efficiencies and automation enabled by thedispensing system described herein, the removal of the extraneous softassets to form the customized memory can be performed in any of avariety of manners and sequences to effect dispensing of customizedcontent to the customer, depending on the embodiment. In variousembodiments, the content removal can be performed before, after, orconcurrently with assembly of the hardware into which the customizeddisk is to be installed. In various embodiments, the content removal canbe performed by a variety of entities, including the original equipmentmanufacturer (OEM) of the hardware and their contractors, by avalue-added reseller, by an enterprise IT (information technology)organization, by a retailer, or by the customer. In some embodiments,content removal may be done by a separate computer. In some embodiments,culling is done by the device into which the storage medium isinstalled. Content removal may be controlled locally or remotely via anetwork, depending on the embodiment. Likewise, copies of a panoplex canbe alternatively manufactured by various parties in the supply chainprior to content removal.

Removal of the non-selected content from a panoplex within a storagemedium enables dispensing the selected soft assets from the panoplex bythe same methods and apparatus by which the storage medium itself isdispensed—e.g., as an integral part of a device or system sold throughhardware sales and delivery channels, or as a part sold through hardwaresales and delivery channels for direct inclusion in an appropriatedevice or system, as with an upgrade to a new operating system. Ineffect, the software hitchhikes for much of the distribution channelalong with the hardware being distributed.

Benefits to Energy Conservation

Widespread adoption of sideloading provides significant, cumulativeenvironmental advantages through extensive resource and energyconservation. By reducing the use of “shrink-wrap” packaged software,fewer trees are needed to make packaging, less oil feedstock andprocessing energy consumed to produce polycarbonate CD-Rom and DVD disksand their associated transparent, polystyrene “jewel box” containers orthe opaque polypropylene DVD-style cases, and less solid waste willbloat U.S. landfills.

Additionally, as time is saved by not having to run multiple,time-consuming individual installation programs each year, thousands ofexpensive megawatt hours (MWH) of electrical power will be conserved.This reduction in energy usage lowers national fossil fuel consumptionand reduces greenhouse gasses and particulate emissions havingdeleterious environmental and health impacts.

Mass Customization

Traditionally, custom products and low cost are mutually exclusive.While mass production provides identical products at low cost, uniquelyindividual products require craftsmen and specialists whose costlyskills generally make such products affordable only to the wealthy.Today, technology, like the Internet, provides customers directinteraction with a company to specify their unique requirements forgoods and services. Properly modularized designs with appropriateflexible, computer-assisted manufacturing systems can achieve the lowunit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility ofindividual customization. Subtractive installation is a perfect platformfor mass-customizing devices. It provides an economical lot size of one;i.e., meeting an individual customer's specific personal needs withmass-production efficiency and premium, valuable, and varied choices.

Using subtractive installation to manufacture products tailored toindividually specified needs provides manufacturers with a number ofimportant advantages. Manufacturers can broaden markets and deepencustomer relationships. Manufacturers can differentiate their masscustomized digital appliances from competitor's low margin,commodity-type computer devices. Manufacturers can reap higher profitsby making comparison shopping more difficult and shifting customerattention from price to benefits. A manufacturer can provide exceptionalvalue for money achieved through economies of scale while charging apremium margin. This pricing flexibility can balance and achieve highersales, net income, and unit growth targets.

This inexpensive means of distributing mass customized selections ofsoft assets is a particularly timely benefit for personal computermanufacturers. Many types of popular consumer electronics devices areroutinely sold below cost. Products exhibiting such market behaviorinclude game consoles, cell phones, pagers, cable TV boxes, and printersthat are subsidized by games sales, network usage, or ink and otherconsumables. As PC manufacturers have not been able to sell subsidizedhardware, their computers appear relatively expensive to printers andsubsidized consumer electronics. However, extensive sideloading allowsthe potential of raising average unit pricing and use software andupgrade margins to subsidize hardware sales.

Any time devoted to unnecessarily uploading or downloading soft assetsinto a new device is a waste of energy and time. Hardware is uselesswithout software. Software is useless without hardware. Hardware needsboth a storage medium and software loaded onto that storage medium inorder to be useful. Therefore, making the storage medium the functionaldelivery package for dispensing content to the eventual user andsideloading the software into the user's device is a highly overdue andwelcome development.

An Example of Practical Benefit

Marketing channels that benefit from the present invention include, forexample, direct-to-customer Internet sales BTO OEMs. An order to apersonal-computer vendor (e.g., Dell), for a desktop computer having a120-GB disk drive, includes the option to choose assets from a panoplexinstalled thereon.

Rather than the limited choices previously available, the presentinvention provides a vast selection of possible software, games, and/ormusic preinstalled and operable when the computer is delivered. In someembodiments, a separate assembly line parallel to the hardware assemblylime is provided at the vendor for gryphing disk drives plugged into acontroller alone (i.e., without the final device hardware, for gryphingaccording to each purchaser's order) and the gryphed disk drive for aparticular customer is later inserted into a personal computer as it isassembled. In some embodiments, the gryphing is accomplished during thehardware test and bum-in cycle. In some embodiments, the choices forvarious soft assets from a particular user are analyzed to determinewhich panoplex of a plurality of possible pre-built panoplexes bestmatches the user's choices, and a disk drive having that selectedpanoplex is gryphed for that particular user and delivered in a finishedready-to-use device.

In some embodiments, various panoplexes are provided for differentcustomer segments (e.g., small business/home office, hobbyists, gamers,music-lovers, dry cleaners, engineers, architects, and the like). Insome embodiments, different pricing formulae are tied to differentcustomer segments, different time periods, different offerings availablefrom competitors, the overall state of the national economy, and/ordifferent corporate internal financial requirements. In someembodiments, customer-unique customization is also performed, such asinserting (to the proper locations in storage) the end user's name,address, time zone, company and department name, and/or the like. Insome embodiments, the computer is ready to run as soon as it is unloadedfrom the shipping box. In other embodiments, some or all of the gryphingprocess is automatically run in the customer's home or place of businesswhen the computer is first plugged in, with little or no input requiredfrom the customer, such that when this gryphing process completes, thecomputer is ready to run.

An exemplary but hypothetical scenario of some embodiments is asfollows: Bill is tired of figuring out his income taxes by hand. He hasa computer he can use at work, but does not want to bring into theoffice his sensitive financial files. He browses the Dell web site andsees that they sell TurboTax for $15. He is happy because it costs twicethat at the Intuit web site and the best price he could find on Frooglewas five dollars more. He decides he only needs a simple office suite,so he picks StarOffice 11 Office Suite for $20, figuring a $300 savingsover Microsoft Office. He realizes that he would like to research hisfamily's history. Dell offers a choice of thirteen products. Afterreading the accompanying reviews, he chooses Legacy, the cheapest at$15. Feeling good, he splurges and buys a $200 copy of Adobe Illustrator($500 list) for his artistic daughter to use. He has the softwarepreloaded onto a Dell Dimension 2900 priced at $500 with free 15″ flatpanel monitor, free inkjet printer, and free two-day shipping. Were Billan avid music buff, he can order an additional entire drive containingthe music he enjoys most. As he reviews his order, he realizes that hissavings on software paid for the entire computer plus he got free à lacarte software integration. Bill does not have to spend hours erasingundesired trial software. Dell is happy because offering the softwaredrove a $750 sale, added a half to the selling price and doubled theirprofit margin, while boosting their customer experience. Dell is alsoable to market appropriate software upgrades to Bill. Should Bill damagehis computer, depending on Bill's service contract, Dell will gryph thesame panoplex and duplicate the machine and software configuration inBill's original purchase. In some embodiments, a gryphed storage mediumis delivered for Bill to swap into his machine. In other embodiments,the machine or device with the gryphed storage medium is delivered toBill. In some embodiments, these forms of unique re-creation of thecustomized storage medium or device can substitute for drive space thatotherwise may be needed to maintain backup data on a disk hidden“recovery” partition.

Sideloading

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a sideloading process 189 for dispensingsoft assets into a personal computer 104 or similarinformation-processing device, for example, a new device being purchasedby its initial user. Conventional methods for dispensing soft assetsinto a personal computer 104 occasionally include downloading 192 ofsoft assets from a network 191. For example, network 191 could be amanufacturer's internal network used to preload soft assets into adevice being assembled. Further, software and music are commonlyavailable for purchase (or even for free, in some cases) and immediatedownload from the internet 191 via a process of “downloading.”Further,some assets are available as downloads from proprietary wirelessnetworks 191, such as those operated by cell-phone carriers.

Conventional methods also include uploading, media-installing 194 ofsoft assets from physical media 193 (e.g., CDROM, diskette, FLASHmemory, and the like), sometimes also requiring substantial amounts ofmanual input 196 from a user via an interactive input device 195 (suchas a manual keyboard). It takes a considerable amount of the user's timeand mental energy (the drain on the user from the concentration neededto perform the various unfamiliar tasks, as well as the boredom fromwaiting for the process to complete), as well as power from theelectrical grid needed to download and install a large selection of softassets from the internet 191, or to install soft assets from media 193and/or manual input device 195.

In contrast, one aspect of sideloading process 189 of the presentinvention provides sideloading 198 of soft assets, wherein a largechosen set (an “ipselecta”) of soft assets are in effect loaded en masseonto a storage medium 150 that is operatively coupled to computer 104,either before or after the ipselecta are in effect loaded onto thestorage medium. For example, in some embodiments, storage medium 150includes a disk drive and/or FLASH card or chip (e.g., a SanDisk®,TransFlash® or microSD® card) or any other suitable storage medium thatis preloaded (for example, as described below for FIG. 2A or FIG. 2Bbelow), then plugged into an appropriate slot or cradle and connected byappropriate signal and power cabling to other hardware in computer 104,resulting in an operational, ready-to-use device (computer 104), alsoknown as “awesome out-of-the-box.”

Sideloading 198 saves a considerable amount of time (thus increasingmanufacturing throughput and/or reducing the time spent by the userwaiting for his or her purchase to become usable) and electrical energyfor the manufacturer and/or end-user by avoiding much or all of thedownloading, manual, and/or media installing of soft assets. In someembodiments, however, the sideloading of the present invention issupplemented also by downloading and/or manually installing and/or mediainstalling soft assets that were not in the ipselecta.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram of a sideloading process 190 for dispensingsoft assets into a “percepter” 105 or similar device. Percepters aredevices that process percepta, including but not limited to MP3 players,multi-function cell phones, video players and the like, and thus receiveand output sensory stimulation to a user's senses (i.e., sight andsound, as well as touch, smell, temperature, and the like). Process 190is similar to process 189 of FIG. 1A, except that often an intermediatedevice such as computer 104 is typically required as a downloadintermediary between network 191 and percepter 105 for downloaded“percepta” (such as songs or other audio and/or video files) or othersoft assets. An intermediate device such as computer 104 is alsofrequently required as a media-install intermediary between physicalmedia 193 and percepter 105 for manually installed soft assets (such assongs that are read from a music CD, compressed (or “ripped”), andloaded into an MP3 player).

In contrast, one aspect of sideloading process 190 of the presentinvention provides direct sideloading 198 of soft assets, wherein apreloaded storage medium 150 is operatively coupled to percepter 105,either before or after the ipselecta are chosen and made available. Forexample, in some embodiments, storage medium 150 is preloaded (forexample, as described below for FIG. 2A or FIG. 2B), then plugged intoan appropriate slot and connected by appropriate signal and powercabling to other hardware in percepter 105 (which is, in someembodiments for example, a cell phone and/or music player), againresulting in an operational, ready-to-use device. In some embodiments,the sideloading into a percepter 105 is supplemented by also downloadingand/or manually installing soft assets that were not in the ipselecta.

Dispensing Assets Via Subtractive Installation

FIG. 1C is a flow diagram of a process 130 for dispensing soft assetsinto a storage medium 150. In some embodiments, some or all of process130 is called a subtractive installation process or method. In someembodiments, process 130 includes obtaining one or more compliancedefinitions 131 (that define the standards, interfaces, and otherrequirements to make software or other soft assets compatible withprocess 130) by independent software vendor (ISV) 132. ISV 132 producesa set of soft assets 133 (including, e.g., software programs, data, andpercepta content) that is compatible due to ISV conforming to thecompliance definitions 131 during the process of producing soft assets133. In some embodiments, a panoplex-creation program or process 134aggregates a plurality of soft assets 133 from one or more ISVs 132 andinstalls the soft assets to create a panoplex master 135. Replicationprocess 136 obtains a plurality of blank storage media 235, and ontoeach stores a copy of panoplex 211 from the panoplex master to createintermediate workpiece storage medium 230. A purchaser or user 99indicates to gryphing process 140 her or his choice of soft assets thatare to be retained (the ipselecta 255) and gryphing process 140 performsa selective uninstall to customize the storage medium 230 and thuscreate storage medium 150 having the customized and/or user-selected set255 of soft assets.

FIG. 1D is a flow diagram of subtractive installation using a gryphingprocess 152 for processing a first storage medium having a prewrittenplurality of installed soft assets. In some embodiments, the gryphingprocess 152 includes OBTAINING SELECTION DATA 153, and AUTOMATICALLYMODIFYING THE FIRST STORAGE MEDIUM 154 based on the selection data suchthat, in place of those assets not relevant to the selected assets,erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selectedassets are available as installed. In some embodiments, the installedassets are unavailable to the end user of the device that ultimatelyuses the storage medium unless and until the modifying operation is run(in contrast to a conventional system that might allow a user to deletemultiple files after selecting those files, in which case those fileswould have been available to the user before the delete operation, andwould have remained available if the delete operation were not to beperformed).

The terms “selection data” or “selection information” in associationwith the gryphing process and apparatus refer to any information thatcan be used to distinguish “ipselecta” (i.e., a first subset of theplurality of installed soft assets that are to be retained, also called“selected assets”) from “relicta” (i.e., a second subset of theplurality of installed soft assets that are not to be retained, alsocalled “non-selected assets”). As such, in some embodiments, theselection data can list or otherwise identify the selected assets thatwould be kept and made available to the user, while substantially allother assets would be implied to be non-selected assets to be culled,erased, uninstalled, made unavailable, and/or otherwise removed. Inother embodiments, the selection data can list or otherwise identify thenon-selected assets, and substantially all those assets would be assetsto be culled, erased, uninstalled, made unavailable, and/or otherwiseremoved, while all other assets would be implied to be selected assetsto be kept and made available to the user. The selection data caninclude names of assets, coded data associated with assets (e.g.,product identifiers (such as universal product codes), serial numbers,indices, tables, databases, or the like), addresses where the assets arelocated, or any other suitable information usable to identify assets tobe kept, assets to be culled, or both assets to be kept and assets to beculled. In certain circumstances, the selection data may be inferred,such as when a component (such as a spell checking program) may beshared, and only when all the possible using programs of that component(such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, and databases) arenon-selected, then the shared component would then be a non-selectedasset.

In some embodiments, the unavailability is accomplished by softwareencrypting, directory unavailability or obscuring,file-allocation-table-linked-list reordering, or other techniques. Insuch embodiments, the assets on the storage media would not be readilyavailable to a user who obtained possession of a storage medium having apanoplex, even before gryphing is performed, in order to preventunauthorized release of the assets to the public. Some operationperformed in conjunction with the culling operation of the gryphing(such as creation of a working directory structure, decrypting of thesoft assets, or other data manipulation operation) is required beforeone or more of the assets became available. These protections for thepanoplex are termed data security.

In other embodiments, the storage media are kept in locked or physicallysecure locations or vehicles (also called supply-chain quarantine),wherein the corporations and/or other entities having possession of thestorage media that hold panoplexes are not released to a user untilgryphing of the assets is performed. These protections for the panoplexare termed physical security.

In still other embodiments, a residue of the panoplex and the gryphingoperation(s) performed on it are left on the storage medium (e.g., apermanent serial number or other code(s) associated with such data, orone or more hidden sectors or other indicia of which panoplex was oncestored, and/or which assets were culled or made available), in order toprovide evidence of unauthorized reconstruction or use of assets thatwere not selected and/or paid for, to allow for legal prosecution ofperpetrators of such unauthorized reconstruction or use. In someembodiments, legal contracts (such as click licenses) supplement suchinformation. These protections for the panoplex are termed forensicsecurity. In some embodiments, data security, physical security and/orforensic security are provided in the storage medium, the end-userdevice with which it is intended to operate, and/or its supply chain.

FIG. 1E is a flow diagram of a network-activated gryphing process 155for processing a first storage medium having a prewritten plurality ofinstalled soft assets. In some embodiments, the network-activatedgryphing process 155 includes obtaining 153 selection data, sending 157gryphing commands and selection data across a network (parts of which,in some embodiments, are wireless) to a gryphing program andautomatically gryphing 158 the first storage medium 154 based on theselection data such that, in place of those assets not relevant to theselected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed.

In some embodiments, a dispensing computer (see, e.g., dispensingcomputer 102 in FIG. 4A or FIG. 4D) is called or includes a grypher orgryphing device. In some embodiments, the present invention provides anapparatus having a grypher that includes that dispenses a customized setof soft assets chosen for installation to a device of a particular user)is coupled to a network. In some embodiments, the dispensing of softassets includes gryphing of a panoplex, which is controlled across thenetwork. In various embodiments, the network is any suitable network,such as a LAN (local-area network), SAN (storage-area network), or WAN(wide-area network) including the Internet, for example. Some or all ofsuch a network may be wireless, as with a cellular phone, Wi-Fi, Wi-Maxnetwork, or the like, and is accessed from the dispensing computer usingnetwork-access circuitry (see, e.g., network-access circuitry 409 inFIG. 4D) that sends and receives data through such a network. In someembodiments, the network-access circuitry includes Ethernet circuitryand controls the gryphing process across a wired network across alocal-area network; while in other embodiments, the local network isalso attached via a suitable router or modem to a wide-area network suchas the Internet. In some such embodiments, the purchaser effectivelyconnects the newly purchased or ungryphed device to an internetconnection and the gryphing process is controlled from a remote orcentralized computer facility while the new device is in the user'spossession.

For example, in some embodiments, a purchaser connects a new personalcomputer (e.g., purchased from a vendor such as Acer) to an internetconnection at the purchaser's home or place of business, and gryphingoccurs in the personal computer in the purchaser's home or business. Inother embodiments, the network-access circuitry includes wirelessconnectivity. As another example, in some embodiments, a purchaserconnects a new cellular telephone, optionally including a MP3 musicplayer (e.g., purchased from a vendor such as Sprint) to a cellularnetwork (e.g., by making a telephone call to a particular specialtelephone number) from anywhere (e.g., a local coffee shop), andgryphing occurs there. As yet another example, in some embodiments, apurchaser connects a new laptop, optionally including a Wi-Fi connection(e.g., purchased from a vendor such as HP) to a Wi-Fi network from aWi-Fi hotspot (e.g., a local internet-cafe or airport), and gryphingoccurs there. Thus, in some embodiments, control of culling theextraneous content is exercised across a network. In some embodiments,at least a portion of the network is wireless.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a process 200 for creating a storagemedium 150 having a customized and/or user-selected set of soft assets255. In some embodiments, storage medium 150, once completed, issideloadable according to the descriptions for FIG. 1A and FIG. 1Babove. In some embodiments, process 200 includes a panoplex-generationprocess 201 and panoplex-gryphing process 202. In some embodiments, aplurality of soft assets 297 is installed into an installation storagemedium (ISM) 210 using one or more installation programs 298. In someembodiments, this operation is performed with ISM 210 coupled to andcontrolled by a device that is similar to the final device 260 (see FIG.2B). The result of installations is a panoplex 211 stored on ISM 210. Insome embodiments, ISM 210 is an initially blank, formatted storagemedium onto which a plurality of soft assets (e.g., software programs orMP3 songs) is installed using one or more installation programs 298. Insome embodiments, panoplex 211 is then copied to a master storage medium(MSM) 220 (for example, a large-capacity disk drive having one or moreother panoplexes (e.g., panoplex 221 and panoplex 222) stored thereon.In some embodiments, ISM 210 is then reformatted and again used tocreate a different panoplex having a different set of soft assets.

In some embodiments, an inventory of at least one blank end-user storagemedium 235 is converted to intermediate workpiece 230 by copying into itthe data for panoplex 211 (e.g., the software portion) from MSM 220. Forexample, blank end-user storage medium 235 is, in some embodiments, adisk drive or FLASH card that is part of the complete hardware 260 forthe final user device (i.e., it is a complete hardware combination 260with an embedded blank storage medium as described in FIG. 2B). In otherembodiments, it later becomes part of the complete hardware 260 (i.e.,it is a stand-alone storage medium 235 (hardware) that is to be firstloaded with panoplex 211 (software) and is then later connected to therest of the device hardware). Individual ones of the inventory ofintermediate workpieces 230 are supplied, as needed, topanoplex-gryphing process 202. That is, a blank end-user storage medium235 becomes, by copying a panoplex 211 onto it, an intermediateworkpiece 230, and this becomes, after gryphing to remove relicta data,gryphed storage medium 150.

In some embodiments, panoplex-gryphing process 202 includes obtaining aset of gryph source data 232 from the panoplex 211 on an intermediateworkpiece 230, obtaining ipselecta-relicta selection data (IRSD) 233that indicates the selections of soft assets of a particular user, andgryphing the panoplex 211 by using gryphing program 240 to achievesubtractive installation. The subtractive installation accomplished bygryphing program 240 culls the relicta (the soft assets that are to beremoved), leaving erased space 258 in the place of the culled softassets, and retaining the ipselecta 255 (the soft assets selected to beretained) to obtain a gryphed storage medium 150. In some embodiments,for example, the gryph source data 232 includes the data for thedirectory and the registry, and the gryphing program removes thedirectory entries and the registry entries for the relicta, and thenwrites the resulting directory and registry to their respectivelocations (i.e., the locations on the storage medium where theoperating-system software expects to find this data) on intermediateworkpiece (storage medium) 230, thus forming the gryphed storage medium150. That is, a blank end-user storage medium 235 becomes, by copying apanoplex 211 onto it, an intermediate workpiece 230, and this becomes,after gryphing to remove relicta data, gryphed storage medium 150.

Microsoft Windows Installer (AKA MSI)

Microsoft Windows Installer software technology (referred to as MSI) isused by modem Microsoft operating systems to install and uninstallapplications, and generally manage the installed state of applications.Because MSI provides APIs to enumerate the resources and assets in setupfiles (MSI files) and enumerate the applications on the system, it isespecially useful in management and creation of the panoplex. Theresources in MSI files can be compared against resources in other MSIfiles and on a computer to ensure that they do not conflict with eachother if these MSI files were to be used to install their respectiveapplications. An example of some of these are the conflicts are checkedfor in the scripts in section [284] and similar code can be used toconfirm that no two MSI files install services with the same name, asanother example of a potential conflict of resources in an MSI file thatis to be avoided.

MSI can uninstall products without user interaction, and this fits wellwith the idea of populating a computer with a collection of soft assetsor software products using an MSI installation that may require a userinterface, and later removing unwanted products by uninstalling using amethod faster than the installation process and without any userinteraction. Products are identified to MSI by Globally UniqueIdentifiers (Guids), and these are unique for every product because theimplicit definition of a Guid is that it is unique. A computer that ispopulated with products installed with MSI technology can be queried forall those product Guids, with the query returning a list of these Guids.The products that are required to remain on the computer (for examplebecause the customer has purchased them) are among these productsidentified by the returned Guids. When a user looks at a list of productnames and chooses which ones are to be retained on the computer, a listof Guids is effectively being chosen. (In some embodiments, a tablelookup or other suitable mechanism is used to convert between the listof Guids returned by the query and the list or display of product namespresented to the user for selection of the user's desired soft assets tokeep, and a corresponding reverse lookup is used to generate the list ofGuids to be removed or the list of Guids to be kept.) In someembodiments, the computer can be put into its ipselecta state ofinstalled products with the following pseudocode algorithm: ArrayProductsToKeep is defined as a list of the Guids corresponding toproducts that the customer wishes to retain i.e., the ipselecta ArrayComputerProducts is a list of the Guids corresponding to all theproducts in the panoplex for each productGuid in ComputerProducts { ifproductGuid is not in the list of ProductsToKeep then UninstallproductGuid }

In Microsoft Windows, the MsiEnumProducts API enumerates the list ofproduct Guids installed on the computer. To uninstall a product, theMsiConfigureProduct API is called passing the Guid and specifying theresultant state to be absent. In some embodiments, using a properlywritten product setup, an MSI setup uninstalling a product will leave noevident traces on the system, no files and no registry entries. Residueremains only as “dirty” sectors holding data of the erased assets.

In some embodiments, the following is sample code for reading theinstalled programs (without needing a manifest) and list-drivenuninstalling. This is provided for illustrative purposes and can be usedby someone of skill in the art to show how to design a gryphing routinefor a Windows-based computer.

The first program code shows that you do not, in every embodiment,really need the .ppx manifest to determine what programs are installed.The second code shows a method for bulk uninstall of the relicta. Thetext preceded by a single quote is comment text for the code.

The following first code (listallproducts) creates a text file listingof the products on the system that were installed with WindowsInstaller. It writes the identifying Guid and name to the file. Thisjust illustrates how to produce a list of the Guids. This VisualBasic-type script, when run, generates as its output, a file calledprods.txt. In some embodiments, from a display (e.g., a nicely formattedvideo display of product names, descriptions, graphics, popularityreviews, and/or prices that is generated based on Guids in the prods.txtfile, optionally including, e.g., selection mechanisms such as buttonsusable by the user to choose among the soft assets), the user can choosewhich soft assets to retain and/or which to remove. Option ExplicitPublic installer, fullmsg, comp, prod, a, fso, pname, ploc Set fso =CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”) Set a =fso.CreateTextFile(“prods.txt”, True) ‘ Connect to Windows Installerobject Set installer = CreateObject(“WindowsInstaller.Installer”) onerror resume next For Each prod In installer.products pname =installer.productinfo (prod, “InstalledProductName”) ploc =installer.productinfo (prod, “InstallLocation”) a.writeline (prod & “ ”& pname) Next

The following second code is the script that uninstalls the list ofproducts in a file called test.txt that has the same layout as the fileprods.txt produced by the listallproducts script above. This scriptshould not be run on a typical personal computer (i.e., one not set upfor gryphing), since it will uninstall all listed files, in someembodiments. If one were to run this script and test.txt equaledprods.txt, it would uninstall everything listed in that file. Rather,soft assets selected to retain are removed from prods.txt to createtest.txt. The functional part is the Installer.ConfigureProduct call.That is what does the uninstall, and the preceding line that setsUILevel can be tailored to show as much or as little user interface asrequired. Option Explicit Public installer, fso, a, stream, prod Set fso= CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”) Set a =fso.GetFile(“test.txt”) set stream = a.OpenAsTextStream (1) ‘ Connect toWindows Installer object Set installer =CreateObject(“WindowsInstaller.Installer”) do While Notstream.AtEndOfStream prod = stream.ReadLine( ) prod = left (prod, 38)installer.uilevel = 3 installer.ConfigureProduct prod, 0, 2 loop

In some embodiments, the culling includes a “fast secure erase” thatclears or obscures the directory entry (e.g., zeroing or overwriting thedirectory-entry information with other data that makes it difficult toidentify the name, identity, and/or location of the asset that waserased, and/or zeros or reorders the order of sectors of a file (e.g.,in a file-allocation table or NTFS data structure), in order to makemuch more difficult any attempt to access or reconstruct the data thatmakes up the asset. See FIG. 16, below.

In some embodiments, the ipselecta-relicta selection data 233 is datathat is interactively elicited and received from the end user (e.g., thepurchaser of the final device). In some embodiments, the IRSD 233specifies each soft asset in the panoplex and whether that respectiveasset is to be kept or culled. In other embodiments, the IRSD 233specifies only the soft assets in the relicta, wherein the non-specifiedassets are retained as selected assets by default. In some embodiments,the IRSD specifies the particular order in which the relicta are to beuninstalled.

In some embodiments, IRSD 233 specifies which soft assets in thepanoplex are to be kept (i.e., specifying the ipselecta), implicitlyspecifying that the relicta are all other soft assets on the panoplex(i.e., in these cases, IRSD 233 specifies only the soft assets in theipselecta, wherein the non-specified assets are culled as non-selectedassets by default). In some embodiments, the gryphing program 240 or atable that it uses specifies the particular order in which the relictaare to be uninstalled.

In still other embodiments, the IRSD specifies some or all of theselected assets and some or all of the non-selected assets, and theother assets are implied to be selected assets to be kept ornon-selected assets to be culled. For example, in some embodiments, themonetary amount of a purchaser's order could imply certain assets (e.g.,bonus assets) would be provided for free, while those assets wouldotherwise need to be separately selected and paid for. In otherembodiments, a user could specify a price limit (e.g., “sell me allsongs that are available for $0.99 or less each,” or “give me all freesongs that will fit on the storage medium but still leave me 200 GB oferased, empty or available space”).

In some embodiments, IRSD 233 specifies to financial invoice/chargingprogram 241 which soft assets in the panoplex are to be charged for, andfinancial invoice/charging program 241 charges (in some embodiments,based on pricing rules 244) for the selected content by eithergenerating an invoice for, or deducting from an account (e.g., theaccount of the purchaser of this set of assets), an amount based, atleast in part, on which soft assets are retained in the ipselecta 255.As used herein, “charging” includes any mechanism or facility totransfer, obtain, or ask for payment from a purchaser; “invoicing”includes any mechanism or facility to ask for payment or create a debt,such as, for example, creating an invoice that is mailed orelectronically transmitted to a purchaser and that requests or demandsfuture payment or otherwise debits a credit-card account; and“deducting” includes any mechanism or facility for transferring money atsubstantially the present time from a purchaser's account to an accountfor the benefit of the seller.

In some embodiments, each intermediate workpiece 230 includes, as partof panoplex 211, sufficient gryph source data 232 (e.g., directory andregistry data) to provide the information needed by gryphing program 240to cull the undesired/unselected relicta portion of panoplex 211, undercontrol of the IRSD 233. In some embodiments, each intermediateworkpiece 230 includes the program code of gryphing program 240, suchthat alone or with the assistance of external operating-system code, thegryphing can be accomplished (either in the final device 260, or by adedicated gryphing system).

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of another panoplex-generation andpanoplex-gryphing process 204 for creating a storage medium 150 having acustomized and/or user-selected set of soft assets 255. In someembodiments, process 204 includes a panoplex-generation process 205 andpanoplex-gryphing process 206. As described above for process 201, insome embodiments, a plurality of soft assets 297 is installed into aninstallation storage medium (ISM) 210 using one or more installationprograms 298. In some embodiments, panoplex 211 is then copied in twoparts (panoplex′ 226 (the panoplex less a certain amount of gryph data)and gryph data set 229) to a master storage medium (MSM) 223. In someembodiments, MSM 223 has one or more other panoplexes (e.g., panoplex′224 and panoplex′ 225) and corresponding gryph data sets (e.g., gryphdata set 227 and gryph data set 228) stored thereon. By separating thegryphing data 229, the panoplex′ 226 becomes more secure against theftof the soft assets therein. In some embodiments, an inventory of one ormore intermediate workpieces 231 (which are each, e.g., ahardware/software combination) is created by copying the data forpanoplex′ 226 (e.g., the software portion) from MSM 223 to acorresponding number of blank end-user storage media 235 (the hardwareportion, e.g., a disk drive or FLASH card). An individual one of theinventory of intermediate workpieces 231 is supplied, as needed, topanoplex-gryphing process 206. Separately, the gryph data set 229 istransmitted, transported, and/or supplied as gryph source data 232 thatis input to gryphing program 240.

In some embodiments, panoplex-gryphing process 206 includes obtaining aset of gryph source data 232 from the gryph data set 229, using a userinterface and/or input device 259 to present choices and/or prices to apurchaser and elicit responses and receive selections (and, in someembodiments, receiving a credit-card number, bank information for avirtual check (an internet-carried order directing a bank to pay moneyas instructed), or other information regarding the financial transactioncorresponding to the selections) from the purchaser and therebyobtaining ipselecta-relicta selection data (IRSD) 233 that indicates theselections of soft assets of a particular user. In some embodiments, apanoplex-selection program 234 is used to select, from among the storagemedia having different panoplexes, one storage medium 231 having thepanoplex′ 226 that has the best match of its installed soft assets tothe soft assets specified in the IRSD 233. In some embodiments, theparticular storage medium 231 selected by the panoplex-selection program234 is presented to panoplex-gryphing process 206, which performs thegryphing of the panoplex′ 226 by using gryphing program 240 to achievesubtractive installation based in the IRDS 233. In some embodiments,gryphing program 240 executed in a computer having an interface 251(e.g., serial ATA, USB2, or other suitable interface) to the storagemedium. The subtractive installation performed by gryphing program 240culls the relicta (the soft assets that are to be removed), leavingerased space 258 in the place of the culled soft assets, and retainingthe ipselecta 255 (the soft assets selected to be retained) to obtain agryphed storage medium 150.In some embodiments, the set of ipselecta 255include the ipselecta directory 252, the ipselecta registry 254, and theipselecta asset data 256. The remaining space on the gryphed storagemedium 260′ is erased space 258.

In some embodiments, each intermediate workpiece 231 omits frompanoplex′ 226, sufficient gryph source data 232 (e.g., directory andregistry data) to make the soft assets of panoplex′ 226 substantiallyuseless unless rejoined with gryph source data 232 (obtained or receivedfrom a different source) and gryphed by gryphing program 240. Thisseparation of key data (e.g., gryph source data 232) from panoplex′ 226,and not placing that key data on the storage medium 231 providesincreased security and helps ensure that the soft assets of thepanoplex′ 226 are not available to a user unless the storage medium 231is gryphed. In some embodiments, the non-availability to a user is alsoenforced by one or more security measures such as physically lockedfacilities, obscuring data, hidden segments, programs that run on firstpower-up, encryption, passwords and the like, used in conjunction withsplitting the data. In other embodiments, where the complete panoplexdata is on the storage medium, security is provided by other processes,such as, for example, encrypting or obscuring some or all of the data,or physically securing the storage media in locked facilities.Non-availability of the panoplex, or of the relicta, to a user includeshaving the data, if it exists, being not available to the end user, evenif it is available to the manufacturer or retailer of the device. Insome embodiments, a temporal lock is also provided, such that the usermight have some access to the soft asset for a short period of timeafter taking possession, but that the gryphing program would erase thesoft asset at a predetermined time unless the user made the requiredpurchase(s). In some embodiments, intermediate workpiece 231 isoperatively coupled to end-user device 260 before the gryphing programexecutes. In some embodiments, once gryphing program 240 completes itsoperation, end-user device 260 is substantially or completelyready-to-use and functional for its end user. In some embodiments, eachintermediate workpiece 231 includes the program code of gryphing program240, such that alone or with the assistance of external operating-systemcode, the gryphing can be accomplished in and by the final device 260.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram of a rotating-media storage device 260 (e.g.,embodied on a disk drive 261) having a self-contained gryphing program240. In some embodiments, most or all of process 202 (see FIG. 2A) isperformed in the storage device 260. In some embodiments, disk drive 261has one or more rotating disks 269 having data stored thereon, whereinthe data is written and read by transducer 259 that is moved to selecteddata positions by actuator 257. In some embodiments, disk drive 261 alsoincludes various electronics including processor or controller 263, adata/instruction store 265, one or more buffers 264, and anexternal-device interface (also called a system interface) 262 used toaccept data-transfer requests from an external device, and to send datato and receive data from the external device such as the electronics ofa personal computer 104 (see FIG. 1A) or percepter 105 (see FIG. 1B)through connector 256 (e.g., a serial ATA (SATA), serial SCSI, universalserial bus (USB), IEEE 1394 Firewire™ connector, or other suitableinterface). In some embodiments, the data on disk(s) 269 is divided intotwo or more subsets, including a user-data subset 258 and the diskdrive's reserved-area subset 268.

In some embodiments, when disk drive 261 is powered up, store 265 isloaded with control program 266 and access-control program 267. In someembodiments, control program 266 and access-control program 267 are usedto control operation of disk drive 261, and to translate or map systemaddresses (e.g., logical-block addresses (LBAs) used by the externalsystem to access disk-drive data) into disk-drive addresses (e.g.,cylinder-head-sector (CHS) addresses used by controller 263 to accessdata on disk drive 269). In some embodiments, developer-tools availablefor the high-level operating systems (OS) are used to more directlyaccess specific functions of the storage medium (e.g., full access tomanipulate directory entries and other metadata needed for gryphing andfast-secure erase). In other embodiments, perhaps the high-level OS donot readily allow direct access to the hardware, so in some embodiments,some embodiments use a basic low-level operating system such as MS-DOS,which allows read and write access to any disk sectors, including thoseused by the high-level operating system for its directory (including theNTFS directory) and other metadata. See also the description of FIG. 16,below. In some embodiments, that mapping process is also used toreassign spare sectors for those sectors that have failed or haveunreadable or uncorrectable data, and to prevent user access to reservedarea 268. In the embodiment of FIG. 2C, a panoplex 211 (see FIG. 2A) isinitially stored on disk drive 269, but access to the data in thepanoplex 211 by external devices is blocked by access-control program267 until gryphing program 240 has been run to cull the unselected softassets (relicta) and/or to charge the user for the retained assets(ipselecta 255). In some embodiments, control parameters, authorizationcodes and/or decryption keys are sent to gryphing program 240 throughsystem interface 262 by an external device (such as an ordering,customization and/or selection computer), in order to enable gryphingprogram 240 to perform its gryphing operation, which, once completed,provides full access to the ipselecta 255. Access-control program 267prevents reading the panoplex data before gryphing, and prevents readingthe relicta data after gryphing. In some embodiments, if disk drive 261is used (e.g., attempting to read data from the user-data area beforegryphing is complete), the access-control program 267 will allow suchnormal use but will present zeros or some other data pattern instead ofthe panoplex data if any user-data sector is read before the systemwrites data to it. This allows the same disk drive 261 to be used as agryph-able panoplex (if interfaced to a gryphing-program controllerbefore first use) or as a normal blank drive (if accessed first by anyother program), thus providing economies of scale and reducing inventoryrequirements to the system manufacturer.

FIG. 2D is a block diagram of a solid-state device 270 (e.g., embodiedon a flash or other type of solid-state memory device or drive 271, orin some embodiments, the solid-state memory is an embedded part of apercepter 105) having a self-contained gryphing program 240. In someembodiments, the operation of device 270 is substantially the same asdescribed for device 260 of FIG. 2C, and most or all of process 202 (seeFIG. 2A) is performed in the storage device 270. In some embodiments,solid-state drive 271 has one or more memory chips 279 having datastored thereon (e.g., using non-volatile memory such as FLASH, or memorythat uses a thin-film battery embedded in device 270). In someembodiments, solid-state drive 271 also includes various electronicsincluding processor or controller 263, a data/instruction store 265,zero or more buffers 264, and a system interface 262 used to acceptdata-transfer requests and to send and receive data from an externaldevice such as the electronics of a personal computer 104 (see FIG. 1A)or percepter 105 (see FIG. 1B) through connector 256 (e.g., a USBconnector). In some embodiments, the data on chip(s) 279 is divided intotwo or more subsets, including a user-data subset 258 and areserved-area subset 268.

In some embodiments, when solid-state drive 271 is powered up, store 265is loaded with control program (CP) 266 and access-control program (ACP)267. In some embodiments, control program 266 and access-control program267 are used to control operation of solid-state drive 271, and totranslate or map system addresses (e.g., logical-block addresses (LBAs)used by the external system to access disk-drive data), into chip-sectoraddresses used by controller 263 to access data on chip(s) 279). Thatmapping process is also used to reassign spare sectors for those sectorsthat have failed or have unreadable or uncorrectable data, and toprevent user access to the reserved area 268. In the embodiment of FIG.2D, a panoplex 211 (see FIG. 2A) is initially stored on chip(s) 279, butaccess to the data in the panoplex 211 by external devices is blocked byaccess-control program 267 until gryphing program 240 has been run tocull the unselected soft assets (relicta) and/or to charge the user forthe retained assets (ipselecta 255). In some embodiments, controlparameters, authorization codes and/or decryption keys are sent togryphing program 240 through system interface 262 by an external device(such as an ordering, customization and/or selection computer), in orderto enable gryphing program 240 to perform its gryphing operation, which,once completed, provides full access to the ipselecta 255.Access-control program 267 prevents reading the panoplex data beforegryphing and the relicta data after gryphing.

FIG. 2E is a block diagram of a gryphing process 280 used on a storagedevice 231. In some embodiments, gryphing process 280 obtainsintermediate workpiece 231 having a copy of the data for panoplex′ 226(e.g., the software portion) stored on a blank end-user storage media235 (the hardware portion, e.g., a disk drive or FLASH card). In someembodiments, ipselecta-relicta selection data (IRSD) 233 indicates theselections of soft assets of a particular user, and in some embodimentsas shown here, includes pointers to the individual ipselecta members 281(the soft assets to be retained that together form the ipselecta 255),such that culling process 283 removes or erases the relicta 282 (notethe dash-dot-dot arrows on FIG. 2E from culling process 283 to thestorage areas 282 of the soft assets not selected and other data notrelevant to the ipselecta 255). In some embodiments, a decryptionprocess 285 is run (based on the IRSD 233) to decrypt one or more of theipselecta assets (note the dash-dot arrows from decryption process 283to the storage areas 281 of the soft assets selected and other datarelevant to the ipselecta 255 that are to be kept). In some embodiments,not all soft assets are encrypted, so decryption process 285 need notdecrypt those assets. In some embodiments, the resulting storage medium150 having the customized and/or user-selected set of soft assets (forexample, a collection of software and/or audio and/or video files) isthen ready for use. In other embodiments, the IRSD 233 specify theindividual relicta members that the culling process 283 is to remove orerase. In some embodiments, a defragmentation process 284 is also run tooptimize the locations of the stored ipselecta 255 and the performanceof the device that will use the ipselecta 255 (e.g., by moving certainseparated data to consecutive sectors on a disk drive), and/or toprovide additional assurance that the relicta cannot subsequently bereconstructed or unerased and later used (e.g., by flagging the sectorsof the relicta as sectors that are to be overwritten with zeros or otherobliterating data patterns, for example, by a program that automaticallyruns, in the background or during idle periods of time of the processorafter the device is delivered to the user, until all the relicta havebeen overwritten). In some embodiments, the panoplex (e.g., panoplex′226 or other variations such as panoplex 211) contains the universe ofselectable soft assets that have been installed (e.g., all softwareprograms, multimedia assets, and other soft assets from which the usercan choose a subset to keep and/or be charged money for).

FIG. 2F is a block diagram of intransient signal carrier 290 used for astorage device 231. Intransient signal carrier 290 is any mechanism thatcan deliver soft assets to a device at an arbitrary future time. Incontrast, transient signal carriers (such as radio waves and networksignals on a wire or fiber) are transmitted, and once the signal haspassed, it is gone. If information from a transient signal carrier isstored for future retrieval or re-transmittal, then the information hasbeen moved to an intransient signal carrier. As used herein, soft assetsare stored data or information (which include software, programs, audio,video, or other assets, whether in digital, analog, or any other form).In some embodiments, intransient signal carrier 290 is a storage medium150 having soft assets stored thereon that can be coupled to a computer104 or percepter 105. In some embodiments, intransient signal carrier290 can be gryphed to remove non-selected assets, enable selectedassets, and/or provide available space to place other information inplace of the removed non-selected assets.

In some embodiments, some or all of the device's operating system 293 isstored elsewhere, but is used to access information from the intransientsignal carrier 290, using such structures as the program registry 292,the file directory 294, and/or MSI installer database 295. In someembodiments, the operating system 293 is completely maintained withinthe intransient signal carrier 290. In some embodiments, a set ofuser-specific data that customizes the device for a particular user,called insignification, 296 is stored on the intransient signal carrier290. In some embodiments, parts of insignification 296 are containedwithin the program registry 292. In some embodiments, an asset-securityprogram or device 297 (such as an “Ultimate Packer for Xecutables”(UPX)-derived protection system) is used to protect the assets fromunauthorized use. Panoplex 226, in some embodiments, includes aplurality of atomic assets (assets that are to be treatedindivisibly—either entirely there as ipselecta 281 or entirely removedas relicta 282). In some embodiments, a manifest 298 is provided, whichtracks which assets are on the panoplex, and provides a preferred orderfor removal. In various embodiments, some or all of the data of filedirectory 294, registry 292, MSI installer DB 295, insignification data296, manifest data 298, gryphing API 242, and/or other data are storedon the intransient signal carrier 290, while in other embodiments, someor all of these data are stored elsewhere and brought together withintransient signal carrier 290 as and when needed. In some embodiments,the manifest 298 is embodied as a Windows .ppx or other type file in asuitable format (e.g., XML). In some embodiments, manifest 298 includesthe order for the un-installations to occur. In some embodiments,manifest 298 is a ready-to-go subtraction program and/or database thatincludes UUID data, GUID data, tags, playlists, and/or other metadata orprogram code or instructions to assist in the gryphing process.

FIG. 2G is a block diagram of a process 288 to process a blankoplex 253stored on a storage device 236. In at least some of the embodimentsdescribed above, the process of gryphing reads at least some program(s)(such as the gryphing program itself) and/or data (such as filedirectory data, registry data, manifest data and the like) in order toperform the gryphing process. In contrast, in some embodiments such asshown in FIG. 2G, no data need be read from storage medium 236. Rather,a directory structure 237 (and/or registry data, partition data,manifest data) is provided at the location(s) expected by the operatingsystem, wherein this initial directory 237 is blank or substantiallyblank (i.e., indicating that all or substantially all of the storagespace (other than the directory itself) is available for storage of userdata. If used as is, without gryphing process 243, blankoplex 236 actsas a normal blank storage medium (e.g., a blank disk drive or blanksolid-state drive). If, instead, gryphing process 243 operates andwrites directory data and/or registry data and/or the like, then storagemedium 236 will end up with ready-to-use ipselecta. In some embodiments,a process, such as process 204 of FIG. 2B, separates a panoplex 211 intocertain gryph data 229 and the remaining panoplex′ 226.

In some embodiments, the separated gryph data 229 is the total panoplexdirectory and registry (TPDR) data 238 (which, in some embodiments, alsocontains other data) shown in FIG. 2G, and is input to selector-chargerprocess 243, along with ipselecta-relicta selection data (IRSD) 233obtained from choices made by a user or purchaser. In some embodiments,selector-charger process 243 includes a gryphing API (applicationprogramming interface) that operates on TPDR data 238 to generate thegryphed ipselecta directory-registry 239 (containing only data relevantto the ipselecta, and indicating all other storage space is availablefor storing of other data) and a pricing-charging API (in someembodiments, this API is also part of block 243, or separately (such aspricing rules 244 of FIG. 2A) which, in some embodiments, is asdescribed in FIG. 13)that based on pricing options that were presentedto the user and the selection data based on the choices and pricesselected by the user. In some embodiments, selector-charger process 243debits an amount (based on the selections made and ipselecta kept) fromthe user's account 245 (either directly or by invoice presented to theuser). In some embodiments, selector-charger process 243 causes theipselecta directory-registry 239 to be written on top of the blankdirectory area 237 to convert blankoplex 253 into a ready-to-use storagemedium 150 (see FIG. 2B) having the customized and/or user-selected set255 of soft assets and erased space 258. In some embodiments, storagemedium 150 is coupled to the device that will use its soft assets afterthe gryphing process 243 operates, while in other embodiments,blankoplex 236 is coupled to the device first, and gryphing process 243operates afterward. In some embodiments, the individual files and assetsof panoplex′ 226 are broken into pieces and stored in a scatteredmanner, in order to make reconstruction and/or use of the assets moredifficult unless provided with the gryphed ipselecta directory-registry239.

Soft Assets

FIG. 3A is a Venn diagram of a set of various intangibles referred to assoft assets 300. Soft assets set 300 can include soft digital assets(e.g., programs, data sets, or digitized music and the like), analogassets (audio or video recordings in analog format) and/or other typesof intransient signals. In some embodiments, the “universal” set 300 ofpossible soft assets (i.e., all the soft assets available offered by oneor more vendors) includes a plurality of overlapping types of assetsincluding programs 310, percepta 320, OS and/or middleware components309, interactive games (which may include both percepta 320 such asaudio and video storage as well as stories and programs 310), music orother audio 324 (e.g., digitized and compressed files in MP3 format,synthesized-music-specification files such as MIDI-type music files, andthe like), video 326 (e.g., digitized and compressed files in an MPEGformat, cinema, animation, simulations, and the like), photos and otherimages 328 (e.g., digitized and compressed files in JPEG format,drawings, paintings, illustrations, fonts, symbols and the like), anddatabases (such as data and vector data for geographical or geologicalmaps, engineering specifications, architectural features or plans,numerical-control data for automatically building or fabricating parts,statistical data, financial information, and the like).

FIG. 3B is a Venn diagram of a universal set of soft assets 350, some ofwhich are grouped and installed into one or more of a plurality ofpanoplexes (in FIG. 3B, these are denoted as the diagonal boxes labeledas panoplexes 331, 332, 333, and 334, although in other embodiments, agreater or fewer number of panoplexes may be used). In some embodiments,one or more of the panoplexes is loaded onto each one of a plurality ofend-user storage media (e.g., in some embodiments, one inventory or setof one or more storage media 335 each has panoplex 331, another set 336has panoplex 332, another set 337 has panoplex 333, another set 338 hasboth panoplex 334, and yet another set 339 has both panoplex 332,another set 332 and panoplex 333).

In some embodiments, the panoplex-selection program 234 (See FIG. 2B)would examine the asset selections of each purchaser (e.g., from thedata on a purchase order or data transmitted via the internet from a webinterface) and select a storage medium having the panoplex(es) with thebest fit with a particular purchasers selected set of assets. Forexample, upon examining the purchase order of a first user X′ whoselected the five individual assets labeled X, the panoplex-selectionprogram would select a storage medium 338 having panoplex 334 from theinventory of storage media 338 (panoplex 334 happens to include all fiveof the assets labeled X). The selected storage medium 338 is thengryphed in order to uninstall all other assets and leave just the fiveindividual assets labeled X.

As another example, upon examining the purchase order of a second userY′ who selected the nine individual assets labeled Y, thepanoplex-selection program would select a storage medium 339 having bothpanoplex 332 and panoplex 333 (panoplex 332 happens to include four ofthe selected assets labeled Y, panoplex 333 happens to include six ofthe selected assets labeled Y (five of which are not in panoplex 332,while panoplex 331 has three of the selected assets Y). The selectedstorage medium 339 is then gryphed in order to uninstall all otherassets and leave just the nine individual assets labeled Y. Since threeof the selected assets are in panoplex 331, panoplex 331 would not beselected, since a better fit is found in panoplex 332 with four of theselections labeled Y and panoplex 333 with the remaining five, andbetter yet with both of these panoplexes that are stored on storagemedia 339.

As yet another example, upon examining the purchase order of a thirduser Z′ who selected the eleven individual assets labeled Z, thepanoplex-selection program would select a storage medium 339 having bothpanoplex 332 and panoplex 333 (panoplex 332 happens to include six ofthe selected assets labeled Z, panoplex 333 happens to include five ofthe selected assets labeled Z (three of which are not in panoplex 332),while panoplex 331 has four of the selected assets Z). The selectedstorage medium 339 is then gryphed in order to uninstall all otherassets and leave just the nine individual assets labeled Z. Since two ofthe selected assets are not in panoplex 332 or panoplex 333, in someembodiments, those two assets would be installed in a conventionaladditive-installation manner, or those assets would be indicated as notavailable through the gryphing process and could be purchased andinstalled separately.

More Examples of Subtractive Installation in Practice

The mass copying of one or more panoplexes to each storage medium in aninventory is relatively quick, readily performed by automated equipment,and can be done in advance of actually coupling the storage medium to adevice. As shown in the above-described Venn diagrams, asubtractive-installation apparatus (that operates by uninstalling thenon-selected soft assets) provides an efficient platform for what is, inessence, installing those soft assets that were selected. Providing apanoplex on a storage medium (like a raw block of marble for a sculptor)and then removing certain of the installed soft assets to leave theselected assets (using a process that performs “subtractiveinstallation” of the non-selected assets, which is like removing chipsfrom the block of marble to leave the desired statue) dispenses theselected assets. In practice, gryphing is much faster and easier to dothan additively “casting” a sculpture from scratch, at the time oforder.

Conceptually, subtractive installation is as simple as a paper clip.However, as its forms, materials, and uses can differ widely, examininga few exemplary embodiments elucidates the variety and diversity ofapplications enabled by this platform.

In other exemplary embodiments, vendors of notebook computers (e.g.,Toshiba) have their notebook computers designed and built by an originaldesign manufacturer (ODM) (e.g. Compal Electronics) in alow-cost-of-labor country (e.g., China), and that ODM assembles laptopsans memory (DRAM) and/or disk drive. The vendor (e.g., Toshiba)receives shipments of these machines without the high value DRAM andstorage. Upon a the receipt of a customer order, at its stagingfacility, Toshiba gryphs disk drives per the individual user's order,mates the disk drive into the rest of the laptop, adds the DRAM, anddelivers to the user. In another embodiment, the ODM in Shanghaireceives the software selection information, gryphs the storage medium,and ships a customized device per the specific customer order. With aminimum of new investment, Toshiba provides its customers with BTOlaptops.

In still other exemplary embodiments, a personal computer manufacturer(e.g., Lenova) has, for example, a pharmaceutical manufacturer (e.g.,Pfizer) as a large corporate account. In some such embodiments, theinformation-services (IS) department at the corporate customer (e.g.,Pfizer) creates a master corporate panoplex having a variety ofauthorized software applications, and also having an authorization tablelinking location, language, division, function, and rank informationwithin the corporate customer with various software applications bothproprietary, specific-to-Pfizer software and generic software fromoutside software vendors. In some embodiments, an individual providesher employee number and/or other insignification information over anintranet link to the personal computer manufacturer (e.g., Lenova). Whenmanagement approved, this data automatically determines the selectionwithin the set of corporate software to include in the ipselecta, andprovide the user-specific insignification information that is mergedinto the ipselecta. Lenova chooses a storage medium holding a duplicateof the master Pfizer corporate panoplex, decodes the information,selects the assets to include in the ipselecta, gryphs the Pfizerpanoplex, insignifies the software with the user's particular data, andships the appropriate computer hardware, coupled with thefactory-gryphed storage medium, holding the correct insignifiedipselecta, to the Pfizer employee and bills the Pfizer accounts payabledepartment according to a pre-established corporate contract. Pfizerboosts IS productivity.

In yet other exemplary embodiments, a computer vendor (e.g., HP) ships adesktop computer with an embedded disk drive containing a panoplex to abig-box retailer (e.g., COMPUSA or Best Buy). In some such embodiments,the desktop computer uses BIOS extensions that create a protectedenvironment (e.g. Phoenix Technologies' Core Managed Environment (cME))for soft assets and only allows an ordering-and-payment application torun. In some embodiments, the end-user purchases the desktop computer,takes it home, connects to internet, and a remote computer providescontrol information that elicits and receives selection indications fromthe user as to which soft assets are to be in the ipselecta, controlsgryphing of the computer, charges the purchase to the user's account,and transmits encoded information (e.g., a decryption token and thelike) back to the desktop computer in the user's home to unlock theextended function and storage of the desktop computer. Buying a newcomputer becomes hassle-free.

In still other exemplary embodiments, a big box retailer and itscustomer-assistance organization (e.g., a Best Buy Geek Squad), as aneconomical alternative to replacing an entire computer system, provides,customizes, and installs upgrade disk drives, containing a new OS (e.g.,an operating system, such as Microsoft Windows Vista or the like) andnew OS-capable soft assets. In some such embodiments, a customer goes toan in-store computer kiosk (that may in some embodiments be networkattached) and selects and pays for applications and other soft assets. Apanoplex on a disk drive coupled to the kiosk or to a network-attachedgrypher is gryphed according to the user's selections and payment. Thecustomer-assistance organization (e.g., Geek Squad) swaps out the olddisk drive from the customer's computer and installs the new upgradedisk drive with its soft assets into old machine. In some embodiments,the service includes transferring unique customer data and files to thenew drive. In some embodiments, the panoplex-containing storage mediumincorporates data obscuring and protection methods that allow thecustomer to perform the upgrade away from the store. Best Buy gains anew revenue stream.

In still other exemplary embodiments, a panoplex on a read/write (R/W)optical disk (e.g., a Blu-ray disc (BD)) for use with a gaming computerconsole (e.g., a Sony Playstation) is gryphed and supplied with theconsole (as an alternative to an embodiment installing the panoplex tothe console's internal magnetic disk drive and gryphing the panoplex onthe disk drive). In some embodiments, purchase and gryphing of thepanoplex on the R/W optical disk can also happen independently of thesale of gaming console, wherein the gryphed R/W optical diskincorporating Digital Rights Management (DRM) software that allowloading onto one console or a designated console, while preventingloading on multiple or undesignated consoles, is then forwarded to thecustomer post device purchase. Sony captures more revenue for its gamesdivision.

In still other exemplary embodiments, a panoplex on a hybrid cell phonethat also plays stored music and/or videos (e.g., a Nokia (SymbianOS-based) Music Phone designed for operation with the Cingular Wirelessnetwork) is shipped to retail stores with the intact panoplex in amicro-hard-disk drive (micro HDD) or FLASH drive. In some suchembodiments, a customer uses an in-store terminal to select a phoneplan, and one or more soft assets (e.g., ring tones, music, games,videos and the like), wherein substantially all assets are unavailableuntil phone is activated. Initially, the cell phone device is designedso that it can only call Cingular's switch for activation. Whencontacted, the switch receives the cell phone's electronic serial number(ESN), finds the user selection and payment information, links theassigned phone number to the ESN, and wirelessly sends a relicta list tothe cell phone for use by the gryphing program, which then runs in thecell phone. When gryphing is successfully completed, the cell phonesends to the switch a completion-code handshake and the switch sends akey or decryption code to un-restrict internal phone functions, activatenetwork phone service and release for customer use the ipselecta of softassets. The gryphing and activation occurs anywhere within signal reachof the Cingular network. Sending the small relicta file does not tie upthe network as would sending the selection of soft assets. Customers donot incur the high connect charges of downloading their tunes afteractivation or queue in stores to download assets.

In yet other exemplary embodiments, an educational institution (e.g.,Duke University) mandates that each incoming freshman receives a certainnew laptop personal computer (e.g. a Dell Latitude) and/or a mediaplayer (e.g., an ipod) whose cost is added to their tuition. Theeducational institution creates one or more panoplex for each school(for example, the law school, medical school, engineering school, andthe liberal-arts college would each have its own panoplex for eachdevice). In some embodiments, the panoplex of soft assets includesacademically relevant commercial, proprietary, and freeware softwareprograms (e.g. Corel WordPerfect Office, Wolfram Mathematica, AdobePhotoshop, Macromedia Freehand, Visual Basic, TeX, LaTex, and the like).In some embodiments, the panoplex of soft assets includes course-relatedmaterials (e.g. electronic textbooks (licensed or in the public domain),instructor course notes, instructional films, assigned readings,reference materials, virtual lab experiments, web links, quizzes,recorded lectures (in various embodiments, as audio, PowerPoint, andvideo presentations), and the like). In some embodiments, the panoplexincludes the school-related materials (e.g. school calendar, classschedules, and contact information for the faculty, staff, emergency,and other university services). In some embodiments, Duke could alsoprovide (and sell) legal copies of other soft assets (e.g. music,movies, or video) to discourage campus piracy. The educationalinstitution creates software that creates an ipselecta and insignationfor each student as they enroll, based substantially on the student'sselected classes and major. Each matriculating student receives theirgryphed (customized) devices with the materials appropriate for her ownspecific course load at orientation or the devices are sent to her home.In some embodiments, the educational institution outsources some or allof the work to a computer vendor or value added reseller (e.g., Dell,Apple, or the like). A student benefits from not having to spend ahectic day in a bookstore, buying at retail, expensive, heavy textbooksthat clutter their dorm room. A student also gains the substantialadvantages of having his course work organized and availableelectronically. Lured by such an customized, high-tech, high-touchoffering, Duke captures higher-performing students, in a highlycompetitive educational environment.

In still other exemplary embodiments, a multimedia hardware company(e.g., Kaleidescape) or a manufacturer of personal video recorders (PVR)(e.g. TIVO) creates themed panoplexes (e.g. movie or video by era,genre, language, director, actor, studio, child-age rating,appropriateness level and the like). The company gryphs a selectedpanoplex (as in FIG. 3B) according to a customer's order (wherein theparticular panoplex may be selected from a plurality of panoplexes basedon a correlation to the customer's selections) and installs the storagemedium with only the specified movies into the ordered player unit forshipment. A hypothetical example of how such usage could play out willbe evident from this scenario: Rick is putting the finishing touches onhis new 11,500 square foot home in McMansion, Va. His interior decoratorsuggests installing a central video server making his entire videocollection instantly accessible from any room in his house. He builds-ina Kaleidescape Server with 45 terabytes of RAID storage that can houseover 6600 DVDs. The storage is customized at the factory. He buys itloaded with the 71 MGM musicals made from 1929 through 1941, the sevenPreston Sturges movies made at Paramount, and the twelve Garry Marshallmovies that include Hector Elizondo in the cast. While spending afortune on the video system, Rick saves 45 precious hours importingindividual DVDs into his system.

ANOTHER GRYPHING EMBODIMENT

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of a process 100 according to someembodiments of the invention for creation and duplication of a panoplex(to be gryphed) on a master disk 106 containing ipselecta according tochoices for a particular user, and installed in a computer or otherinformation-processing appliance. In some embodiments, dispensingcomputer 102 is operatively coupled to at least one master disk 106 andat least one end-user disk 108. In some embodiments, a panoplex iscreated onto master disk 106 by installing the plurality of digitalassets that together form the panoplex using dispensing computer 102,while in other embodiments, the panoplex is created on a differentcomputer (i.e., an installation computer having an installation storagemedium onto which the panoplex is created by installing a large numberof soft assets) and copied to master disk 106. In some embodiments, thedata from master disk 106 is copied to each of a plurality of end-userdisk drives 108 (e.g., using a disk-copy program or other suitablemethod). Each end-user disk 108 is to be customized (by selectingcontent to be kept and gryphing to remove all other non-relevant data)for installation in/connecting to a corresponding end-user device (e.g.,a personal computer) 104 for delivery to a particular end-user. In otherembodiments, end-user disk 108 is already installed into computer 104before panoplex copying and/or gryphing. In still other embodiments,computer 104 is used to provide gryphing for outside devices such as amusic player to which the storage medium or end-user disk 108 isconnected. Master disk 106 includes a panoplex (or a plurality ofpanoplexes), which is (are each) a complete collection of all functionalcontent available for selection by the end user (or, in otherembodiments, the selections are made for the end user, for example, whena corporation or enterprise customizes a computer for each employee). Insome embodiments, the end-user has already selected a subset of thepanoplex for installation in computer 104 and selection datarepresenting that selection is provided to dispensing computer 102,which then culls the unselected content, leaving a substantiallyready-to-use and functional end-user device (a combination of softwareand hardware, which herein is called a totum). One process for suchselection is described more completely below.

FIG. 4B is a logic flow diagram illustrating a method 410 forcustomizing end-user disk 108. At block 412, dispensing computer 102duplicates the data from master disk 106 onto new disk 108 to replicatethe entire panoplex within disk 108. At block 414, dispensing computer102 removes the non-selected, extraneous content from end-user disk 108to leave the selected content. In some embodiments, end-user disk drive108 is now customized to the specifications of the end-user. At block416, end-user disk drive 108 is installed into computer 104 to form acustomized product according to the specification of the individualend-user. The particular order of execution of these blocks can bevaried in other embodiments, for example as described below.

What makes this approach attractive and efficient is the dispensing ofavailable content by removal/culling/erasing of the non-selected softassets. In particular, in many embodiments, erasing data from anon-volatile storage medium or other intransient signal carrier is muchfaster than writing the same data to the same storage medium or evenreading the same data from the same storage medium. Even when most ofthe data is to be erased, it can take a shorter time to erase that largeamount of data than it would take to install a few soft assets. Writinga file requires setting up information in a directory and writing thesubstantive digital content of the file to the physical locations of,for example, drive clusters or sectors of a disk drive or flash memorycells. Since storage medium and/or memory access is slow relative totypical processor speeds, writing a file is very time consuming relativeto other tasks performed by a computer.

Reading a file requires reading such directory entries and moving adisk-drive arm, rotating a disk, and/or traversing the memory to accessthe substantive content of the file. Erasing a file requires as littleas mere modification of one or more elements of the file systemdirectory to decouple the physical bits of the file from the fileinformation in the directory that is used to logically make filesavailable to or through the operating system, in order that thepreviously physically stored data become inaccessible, out-of-order,and/or without proper context. Therefore, time required to read or writea file is roughly proportional to the size of the file; however, time toerase a file stays small and relatively fixed and is a fraction of thetime to write or even merely read the file. Accordingly, time to erasemultiple files is more closely related to the number of files than thesize of individual files.

In addition, adding content to a storage medium generally requires someguidance, such as a particular hierarchical directory structure ormultiple-program context into which to store the content. As a result,adding content often requires human intervention. In contrast, removalof content from a storage medium generally requires little more thanaccurate identification of the content within the storage medium.Further, an expert can design a removal program to automatically handlemany instances where human intervention would otherwise be needed toproperly remove programs. In either case, human intervention issubstantially less important in removal of content from a storagemedium. Accordingly, installation by removal lends itself particularlywell to automation.

Consider the following as an illustrative example of the difference insome embodiments between installation by writing and installation byremoval—i.e., additive installation versus subtractive installation.Suppose a music-retail store allows in-store filling of an Apple® iPod®or similar hard-drive- or flash-based digital music player with musicselected by the purchaser at a discount, e.g., as a promotion. In thisillustrative example, the digital music player has a capacity of 60 GBand is accessible through a USB 2.0 connection, supporting nominaldata-transfer speeds of 480 Mb/s (which is about 48 megabytes persecond). In practice, however, the attainable, sustained transfer rateis less than one third of the theoretical rate. Further in thisillustrative example, each digital music player is preloaded (e.g., at amass-copying facility) with a panoplex of digital music. In particular,block 412 (see FIG. 4B for this and the following reference numbers) hasalready been performed, for example, at a manufacturing facility. Inaddition, in some embodiments, block 416 has already been performed.Only block 414 remains to be done. In this example, block 414 isperformed by one or more in-store computers at high speed.

The advantages of the present invention may be even more pronounced inthe example of a cell-phone/music player, in which conventionalapproaches might require over-the-air activation and over-the-airdownloads of perhaps hundreds of soft assets (e.g., songs, videos, orringtones) at very low transfer rates (e.g., as low as 14 Kbits/sec).

If the purchaser wishes to keep all 60 GB of preloaded digital music,the digital music player is ready to go without further processing. Onthe other hand, if additive installation were used, writing 60 GB wouldtake over 60 minutes, an eternity given that it may take only tenminutes to build an iPod in the first place, once its component partsare gathered together in the assembly plant. Were the purchaser to keepnone of the preloaded digital music, approximately 20,000 files areerased—requiring just a few bytes for each file. Thus, to erase 60 GB ofdata, several kilobytes of data are written across a fast USB 2.0connection, taking just moments.

Between these extreme scenarios are many variations. Using only additiveinstallation to store digital music on the digital music player willtake from several minutes, up to an hour. Over-the-air wirelesstransmission and additive installation of soft assets would take muchlonger. While a few minutes per device sold may seem like a minorinconvenience, these few minutes can accumulate into a very long queueof digital music players waiting for customization in busy times, andduring the Christmas-shopping season in particular. Wireless downloadingof songs into a cell phone may take minutes per song and thus present avery unpleasant circumstance for the user who has a long list of songsto acquire. In contrast, subtractive installation to provide store thesame digital music on the same digital music player or cell phone willtake no more than a few seconds, in some embodiments (even for wireless,over-the-air control of the gryphing process in a cell phone), and inmany cases will appear instantaneous to the purchaser and, moreimportantly, to subsequent purchasers waiting in line to make their ownpurchase.

The asymmetry in efficiency is more striking for digital media playersof larger capacities. The disparity derives largely from the differencein the respective amounts of data to be written in storing a soft assetand in removing the soft asset. In addition, removal of many individualfiles can be done in parallel (e.g., by multi-threaded processes)—itdoes not have to be a serial process of removing one file then another.Thus, in some embodiments, the advantages of erasure of files being moreefficient than creation of files are amplified by performing erasure bya program or process that, for example, runs many threads of executionin parallel, each erasing files.

In the example of the digital music player, each soft asset representsabout 3 to 5 MB. In an example that involves preloading of customizedcontent in a networked video server and distribution system (such as theKaleidescape™ system available from Kaleidescape, Inc. of Mountain View,Calif.), each individually selectable soft asset (e.g., a feature-lengthmovie) represents three to five gigabytes or more. Every individualmovie DVD disk takes one-half hour to upload. Thus, additiveinstallation of a few hundred movies can literally take days, whilecustomization by subtractive installation of a few hundred movies isjust a matter of minutes. In some embodiments, a storage medium, as itis built and tested, writes one or more test-data patterns and thenreads back that test data to verify correct operation of the storagemedium. As a final operation in this process, a blank pattern is written(e.g., a default partition and directory, with the rest of the storagemedium zeroed). Thus, when, instead of the conventional blank pattern ofzeros, the panoplex data is written as the final test data of themanufacturing process and is left on the storage medium, there issubstantially no time or cost penalty.

FIG. 4C shows a block diagram of a process 430 that illustrates broaderperspective of the customization system shown in FIG. 4A and the methodshown in FIG. 4B . At block 432, master disk 106 is created, i.e., thepanoplex is created within master disk 106. At block 434, the user 99selects content to be included in the customized disk drive, e.g., disk108. Generally, such selection can be made by any conventionaluser-interface mechanism involving physical manipulation of one or moreuser-input devices by the user. One useful user interface for conductinguser selection of desired content is described below. Of course,selection of the desired content implicitly identifies the extraneouscontent. In an alternative embodiment, the user explicitly selects theextraneous content that is to be removed, thereby implicitly identifyingthe desired content.

At block 410, described above and shown in more detail in FIG. 4B aslogic flow diagram 410, the content of disk 106 is copied to end-userdisk 108 and customized in accordance with the user's selection receivedat block 434. As described above in conjunction with the illustrativeexample of in-store customization of pre-loaded music in a digital musicplayer, the functions of logic flow diagram 430 can be performed in adifferent order than that shown and described. As a practical matter(referring back to FIG. 4B), the panoplex on master disk 106, in someembodiments, should be created at block 432 prior to copying of themaster disk at block 412, and the removal of extraneous content at block414 should be performed after the panoplex on end-user disk 108 has beencopied from master disk 106 at block 412 and after the user hasidentified desired content, thereby implicitly identifying theextraneous content.

At block 411, the completed (or substantially completed) totum isdistributed to the user (e.g., checked out at a retail store, or mailedto a user who ordered in the internet).

The panoplex creation of block 432 typically involves some humaninteraction. In the example of the digital music player for in-storecustomization in the example described above, someone choosesapproximately 20,000 songs for preloading onto digital music players.The assets can be organized into an appropriate hierarchy, for example,genre, artist, and/or album, among other criteria. The songs and theparticular organization is determined by the provider of the preloadedavailable content, i.e., by the provider of the panoplex. Digital musichas the advantage of being fully self-contained. All the information andreferences required for playback of a particular song are included inthe single file containing the digital version of the song. Removal of afile representing one song does not affect the ability of other songsrepresented by other files to be played back. Thus, interoperability ofthe content of the panoplex is generally not a significant concern whenthe soft assets are self-contained in this way.

In other contexts, i.e., when the panoplex includes computer programsthat share resources such as DLLs, such interoperability of theconstituent soft assets of the panoplex can be a significant concern.This concern is addressed below.

Duplication of the panoplex from master disk 106 at block 412 (see FIG.4B above) onto end-user disk 108 can use the fastest copyingavailable—disk-image software copying, bit-by-bit, or sector-by-sectorcopying, or file-by-file copying. In some embodiments, this copying ofthe panoplex data onto end-user disk 108 is done by the disk-drivemanufacturer as the last step of assembly and testing (e.g., as the lasttest data pattern that is written to the disk drive and then read backto check that the writing operation performed correctly). Copying may bedone by specialized media-duplication machines or regular computerhardware. Disk-to-disk copying via computer, as in the case where thepanoplex is copied onto a bare drive already installed in a computer,may use a tool like Microsoft® WinPE to assist and use disk-cloningsoftware, such as Symantec Ghost, to make copies. Since the entirety ofthe panoplex is duplicated at block 412, block 412 can be readilyautomated, creating many cloned disk copies of the data of master disk106, without significant human intervention. In fact, as shown in theexample discussed above, such cloned disks can be installed, packaged,and shipped for near instantaneous, in-plant, in-store, or in-home, asdescribed below, customization.

A significant benefit of using disk-image copying in duplication ofmaster disk 108 is that a disk image can be captured and stored in alarger disk, several spanned disks, or an array of disks. For example, alarge, 300-GB disk can store several disk images of master disks ofsmaller capacities, e.g., 60 GB. In addition, a virtual disk can be usedin lieu of an actual hard drive. Such a virtual drive can substitute formultiple smaller physical drives or enable creation of a panoplex thatis larger than the capacity of a real physical drive.

FIG. 4D shows a block diagram of a system 400 having dispensing computer102. In some embodiments, dispensing computer 102 includes one or moreprocessors 402 that retrieve data and/or instructions from memory 404and execute retrieved instructions in a conventional manner. Memory 404,in various embodiments, can include persistent memory such as magneticand/or optical disks, ROM, and PROM, and volatile memory such as RAM.One or more processors or microprocessors 402 and memory 404 areconnected to one another through an interconnect 406, which is a bus inthis illustrative embodiment. Interconnect 406 is also connected to aninput/output controller 408 and network-access circuitry 409.Input/output controller 408 can be coupled to one or more input and/oroutput devices including as input devices, for example, a keyboard, akeypad, a touch-sensitive screen, a proximity sensor, a motion sensor, amouse, a microphone and including as output devices a display—such as aliquid crystal display (LCD)—and one or more loudspeakers. In addition,input/output controller 408 is coupled to master disk 106 and end-userdisk 108 (e.g., one of a plurality of end-user disks to which a panoplexis to be copied and gryphed). Accordingly, processors 402 can causeinput/output controller 408 to execute reading and writing operations onmaster disk 106 and end-user disk 108. As described briefly above, thepanoplex on master disk drive 106 can be replaced with a disk imagethereof stored in memory 404 or, alternatively, within another computeraccessible through a computer network (e.g., within an array of disks innetwork-attached-storage (NAS) device).

In some embodiments, dispensing computer 102 is coupled to a network,such as a LAN, SAN, or WAN, including the Internet, for example. Some orall of such a network may be wireless, as with a cellular phone, Wi-Fior Wi-Max network. Accordingly, network-access circuitry 410 can sendand receive data through such a network. In some embodiments,network-access circuit 410 includes Ethernet circuitry.

System-customization logic 420 is all or part of one or more computerprocesses executing in processors 402 from memory 404, and performs thefunctions of logic flow diagrams 410 (FIG. 4B) and 430 (FIG. 4C) in oneembodiment.

Computer Software—Content Involving Shared Resources

As described briefly above, some soft assets of master disk 106 can relyon the presence of shared resources stored on master disk 106. Such isparticularly true if the soft assets include computer programs thatdepend on shared resources. In some embodiments, care is taken topromote stability in the panoplex as installed on master disk 106 and ascustomized on disk 108, particularly stability in execution of theconstituent computer programs of the panoplex after one or morenon-selected computer programs are removed. In some embodiments,stability is promoted by ensuring that programs are logically isolatedin their operations so as not to interfere with the operation of otherprograms, that their required resources are included in the panoplex onmaster disk 106, and that resources used by removed programs are notremoved from end-user disk 108 during customization, if they are stillrequired by other programs remaining in the panoplex. Concerns regardingstability are addressed primarily in two phases: first, in the creationof the panoplex and, second, in the paring of the panoplex at block 414(see FIG. 4B).

In creating the panoplex, stability is promoted by limiting the panoplexto only certain content meeting specific requirements and by ensuringproper installation of this content on to master disk 108. In oneembodiment, content is required to include an installation script and aremoval script. A script is a simple computer program, often expressedin a very high-level procedural scripting language or scriptingenvironment. A removal script is sometimes referred to as an uninstallscript. Preferably, both the install script and the removal script of agiven soft asset should be executable without human intervention.However, human intervention during execution of the install script forcreating the panoplex is tolerable since the panoplex is created onceand used many times to create customized disks such as disk 108.Installation and removal scripts are well known and are only describedbriefly herein to facilitate appreciation and understanding of thedescribed embodiments of the present invention.

Installation of a computer program often includes copying of numerousfiles to proper locations within a file system. A file system is anorganization of a storage medium into files that can be accessedindependently of one another. As an example of such installation, aprimary executable file (e.g., with an “.exe” file extension inMicrosoft operating systems) can be copied to a location in the filesystem set aside for the computer program. Dedicated resources, such asimages, templates, etc., are similarly copied to a location in the filesystem set aside for the computer program. Other resources, those whichmay be used by other computer programs such as DLLs and fonts, aretypically copied to shared resource locations within the file system andtheir presence registered and published for use by other programs.Installation of the computer program also typically includes storingdata in a program registry, including information forgraphical-user-interface (GUI) elements for invocation of the computerprogram to be made available to the user. In the context of a MicrosoftWindows operating system, such data stored during installation can addan entry in the well-known “Start” menu and/or add an icon to thedesktop for invocation of the installed computer program.

Execution of the installation script causes each of the files associatedwith installation of the computer program to be copied or moved to theirrespective proper locations within the file system. In addition, suchexecution stores the data in the appropriate registries and/or locationsto render the computer program capable of easy invocation and properexecution.

Execution of a removal script, in some embodiments, causes removal ofthe subject computer program, dedicated resources, and the related datain the registries and elsewhere. In addition, execution of the removalscript, in some embodiments checks to see if any other computer programrequires each of the shared resources and removes each shared resourcethat is not required by another computer program.

With Microsoft operating systems, installation and removal functions canbe implemented as an MSI package (a Microsoft® Windows® SoftwareInstaller having an “.msi” file-name extension). An MSI package providesself-describing database tables and the computer program, along with alldedicated and shared resources and the appropriate installation andremoval instructions. In Unix and Linux and similar operating systems,installation and removal scripts, resources, and the computer programcan be included in packages that can be installed and/or removed usingsuch package management systems as the “dpkg” Debian package manager (aGNU General Public License or Linux software package available atwww.debian.org) and/or the “rpm” or Red Hat package manager (availableat www.rpm.org or www.redhat.com).

In some embodiments, the panoplex is constructed on master disk 106 by(i) installing an operating system and (ii) executing the installationscripts of each and every computer program to be included in thepanoplex. Both the Debian and Red Hat package managers ensure thatsimilar installation scripts for each and every required resource,generally referred to as a package dependency, are executed or fail. Inaddition, conflicts represented by incompatible dependencies of packagesto be installed are detected and avoided by failing any installationthat would result in such a conflict. An MSI package includes therequired resources, as specified by the software publisher. Care shouldbe taken, by conscientiously following Microsoft-recommended bestpractices, to avoid installing any required resource that wouldsupersede any required resources of any other computer programs.

In some embodiments, removal of non-selected extraneous computerprograms at block 416 (FIG. 4B) is accomplished by execution of removalscripts specific to the extraneous computer programs to be removed. Boththe Debian and Red Hat package managers provide for removal of packages,including removal of any packages dependent upon the removed packages.An MSI package typically includes an uninstall script, execution ofwhich properly removes the computer program of the MSI package. Theinstallation and removal scripts can be provided by the producers of thevarious computer programs to be included in the panoplex.

In other embodiments, the installation and removal scripts can beconstructed by a single entity, namely, the entity creating thepanoplex, to ensure proper installation and removal of each computerprogram of the panoplex. In some such alternative embodiments, eachcomputer program of the panoplex is installed onto a clean system onmaster disk 106, i.e., a system in which only the operating system hasbeen installed onto an empty master disk 106. A clean system can be realor virtual, the latter created, in some embodiments, using a productlike VMware Workstation. Comparison of the entire state of master disk106 prior to and immediately after installation shows which files arechanged and which registry entries are changed. MSI packages forinstallation and removal of the computer programs are created toaccurately represent these changes.

In some embodiments, the operating system of the panoplex is the WindowsXP operating system and its successors. In some embodiments, theinstallation and removal scripts are developed and managed bynon-Microsoft tools (e.g. Wise Package Studio or MacrovisionInstallShield). In some embodiments, the installation and removalscripts are Microsoft MSI packages that comport with Microsoft'sguidelines for Component Object Model usage, to ensure backwardscompatibility, embedding and maintaining correct resource versioninformation, comparing of respective versions of a resource beforeoverwriting one version of a resource with another, installing resourcesto a shared directory, and registration of files.

FIG. 5 shows a panoplex 502 of some embodiments in diagrammatic form. Insome embodiments, panoplex 502 is the panoplex stored on master disk106. At its logical and functional foundation, panoplex 502 includes anoperating system 508. Operating system 508 provides basic resources andprovides general, basic functionality of a computer, e.g., computer 104.Applications 504 are computer programs that provide specificfunctionality. Examples of applications 504 include word-processorprograms, spreadsheet programs, database programs,graphical-image-manipulation programs, music-creation, music-editing,and music-playback programs, and the like. As is well known, these areall end uses of a computer and are typically provided by applications504. Shared resources 506 provide intermediate levels of functionality.Examples of shared resources 506 include libraries of executable modulesthat can be leveraged by applications 504 to provide such intermediatefunctionality as file management, window management,graphical-user-interface (GUI) tools, etc., as well as soft assets suchas fonts, icons, sounds, graphics, etc.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system 600 having system-customizationlogic 420 (of FIG. 4D) in greater detail. System-customization logic 420includes panoplex-authoring logic 602, panoplex-replication logic 604,panoplex-customization logic 606, and a number of application recordssuch as application record 608A. While panoplex-authoring logic 602,panoplex-replication logic 604, and panoplex-customization logic 606 areshown to be part of system-customization logic 420 and thereforeexecuting in a single computer system, it should be appreciated that inother embodiments panoplex-authoring logic 602, panoplex-replicationlogic 604, and panoplex-customization logic 606 can be implemented inseparate respective computer systems and can execute independently ofone another. In addition, application records such as application record608A can be stored in a database accessible by panoplex-authoring logic602, panoplex-replication logic 604, and panoplex-customization logic606. In some embodiments, the database is stored within panoplex 502. Insome embodiments, system-customization logic 420 includes an applicationrecord for each application included in panoplex 502 that can be removedby non-selection by the user. Application record 608A is representativeof each of the application records included in some embodiments ofsystem-customization logic 420.

In some embodiments, application record 608A includes a name 610A thatis unique among the respective names of the application records ofsystem-customization logic 420 and that, in some embodiments, serves asan identifier of application record 608A. Application record 608Aincludes data representing a number of dependencies, e.g., dependency612A, each of which identifies another application record ofsystem-customization logic 420. For proper functioning, the applicationrepresented by application record 608A requires that the applicationidentified by dependency 612A is properly installed. Dependencies suchas dependency 612A can be represented implicitly within installationscript 614A and removal script 616A, which are described below. Forexample, installation script 614A can cause installation of a requiredresource and representation of the dependency in a registry, and removalscript 616A can remove the dependency from the registry.

In some embodiments, application record 608A includes an installationscript 614A and a removal script 616A, execution of which installs andremoves, respectively, the application represented by application record608A. In some embodiments, application record 608A also includes arequired count 618A which represents the number of other applicationsfor which the application of application record 608A is a prerequisite.Required count 618A can be omitted if a registry or other component ofoperating system 508 maintains similar information enablingdetermination that a particular resource is no longer needed when alldependent applications have been removed. In addition, in someembodiments, application record 608A includes a pricing policy 620A thatdetermines the price to charge for the application of application record608A. Pricing policy 620A is described more completely below.

FIG. 7 is a logic flow diagram 700 illustrating one manner in whichpanoplex-authoring logic 602 builds panoplex 502. At block 702,panoplex-authoring logic 602 installs operating system 508. Loop block704 and next block 708 define a loop in which all available applicationsof panoplex 502 are processed according to block 706. In each iterationof the loop of blocks 704-708, the particular application processed issometimes referred to as the subject application.

At block 706, panoplex-authoring logic 602 installs the subjectapplication using the installation script of the subject application,e.g., installation script 614A. In some embodiments, installation script614A is an MSI script, execution of which includes installation of anyrequired resources such as DLLs and soft assets. In an alternativeembodiment, panoplex-authoring logic 602 identifies and installs allrequired resources recursively in block 706.

Processing transfers through next block 708 to loop block 704 in whichpanoplex-authoring logic 602 processes the next application according toblock 706. When all available applications have been processed bypanoplex-authoring logic 602 according to the loop of blocks 704-708,processing according to logic flow diagram 700 transfers to block 710.

At block 710, panoplex-authoring logic 602 stores removal scripts, e.g.,removal script 616A, for all applications in panoplex 502. Thisconstitutes a preferred embodiment. In an alternative embodiment,removal scripts are maintained within system-customization logic 420within memory 404 and not stored within panoplex 502. The advantage ofstoring removal scripts in panoplex 502 is that panoplex 502 containsall that is needed for removal of extraneous, non-selected content atblock 414 (FIG. 4B), such that block 414 can be performed in an entirelydifferent environment from that in which panoplex 502 is created.

At block 712, panoplex-authoring logic 602 cleans panoplex 502 byremoving extraneous byproducts of installation. Such extraneousbyproducts include temporary files and drivers for hardware componentsnot expected to be used with panoplex 502, for example. In suchembodiments, the hardware context of the ultimate operating environmentof pared copies of panoplex 502 is known, e.g., computer 104. Driversfor hardware components not included in such an operating environmentare extraneous and are removed at block 712.

At block 714, panoplex-authoring logic 602 optimizes panoplex 502 forimproved performance. Block 714 can be performed in response to manualdirection by a human systems administrator to adjust various performancesettings of panoplex 502. Manual optimization is one of the surprisingadvantages achieved through content customization in the mannerdescribed herein. While each duplicated copy of panoplex 502 isultimately customized to the specification provided by an end-user, eachsuch copy starts as a direct duplicate of panoplex 502. Accordingly, anyminor adjustments and improvements of panoplex 502 propagate to allcustomized duplicates of panoplex 502. In effect, optimized quality ismass-produced for customized goods.

At block 716, panoplex-authoring logic 602 performs regression testingby iteratively removing applications from panoplex 502 and testing forsystem operation and stability. Block 716 can be performed manually andover an extended period of time. Since panoplex 502 is to bemass-produced prior to customization, the sometimes tedious andexpensive process of quality assurance is offset by economies of scale.After block 716, processing according to logic flow diagram 700completes.

The result is panoplex 502 stored on master disk 106. Panoplex 502represents a fully functional installation of operating system 508,shared resources 506, and applications 504. When used in a computer likecomputer 104, panoplex 502 is stable since proper versions of allrequired resources of applications 504 are properly installed. Masterdisk 106 is now ready for duplication at block 412 as described above(see FIG. 4B). In a particularly useful embodiment, block 412 isrepeated many times to accumulate a large inventory of copies of masterdisk 106 as a “blank” for subsequent installation in a computer, such ascomputer 104. The term “blank” is used to indicate that the panoplexstored on each duplicate disk has not been pared and reduced to reflectcustomization in accordance with choices made by a particular user.

Consider a manufacturer of computers. In one instance, the business plancalls for build-to-order operation. Hard drives are components providedby a disk-drive manufacturer. In one method of this invention, thecontract with the drive supplier can include preloading the selectedpanoplex into the drives and delivering these to the computermanufacturer. Alternatively the drives pass from the drive supplier to acontract manufacturer that loads the panoplex onto a disk.Alternatively, the original-equipment manufacturer (OEM), i.e., thebrand-name manufacturer, loads the panoplex onto the drives.

When an order is received from a customer, the order includes anindication of the customer's selection of the desired content. On theproduction line, the necessary customization is accomplished and thefinished machine with the desired programs installed is delivered. Inanother instance, a manufacturer who builds computers to place in theirinventory will store the finished machines; each loaded with theselected panoplex, and will later customize the devices, as needed,before shipping. Further, as will be seen, customization can be carriedout in a retail establishment or even at a home or place of business. Ineach instance, the time-consuming loading operation is done when time ismost available, and delivery to a customer is effected more quickly thanwould be the case were the desired content added after specification.

For duplication at block 412, panoplex-replication logic 604 can performa disk-image copy, a bit-by-bit or sector-by-sector copy, or afile-by-file copy of master disk 106 to end-user disk 108. For someembodiments in which end-user disk 108 is to be bootable and includecomputer programs, it is preferred that panoplex-replication logic 604use a disk-image copy at block 412. As described above, in someembodiments, a disk image of the data on master disk 106 (i.e., thepanoplex) is stored within memory 404 to enable disk-image copies to bemade of the panoplex in the absence of master disk 106.

In some embodiments, storage media (e.g., end-user disk drives 108)having complete duplicates of the full, un-customized copy of panoplex502 become parts for inclusion in computers manufactured to customers'specifications, and can be accumulated in an inventory and kept readyfor such use. In some embodiments, customization of such a end-user disk108 (a duplicate of master disk 106) begins concurrently with assemblyof computer 104 into which the duplicate will eventually be installed,with receipt of a build order from a seller of customized computers. Thebuild order, in some embodiments, includes hardware specifications,including computer case, processor type and speed; amount andconfiguration of RAM; and disk-drive type, speed, and capacity, forexample. The build order also includes customer-specific informationsuch as the customer's name and time zone, for example. In someembodiments, the build order also includes data identifying which of theavailable content of panoplex 502 is to be removed (or, alternatively,includes data identifying which content is to be retained, such that thecontent to be removed is implicitly all the other content).

To start customization of panoplex 502, a disk that includes panoplex502, e.g., end-user disk 108, is retrieved and coupled to acustomization computer while the other hardware of the customizedcomputer is being assembled concurrently. In some embodiments,dispensing computer 102 is the customization computer. Of course, itshould be understood that the customization computer can be differentthan the computer executing panoplex-authoring logic 602 and thecomputer executing panoplex-replication logic 604.Panoplex-customization logic 606 executes within the customizationcomputer.

Panoplex-customization logic 606 customizes replicated panoplex 502 in amanner illustrated by logic flow diagram 800 (FIG. 8). At block 802,panoplex-customization logic 606 identifies content to be removed frompanoplex 502. As described above, such information is included in thebuild order, in some embodiments. Loop block 804 and next block 808define a loop in which all extraneous applications of panoplex 502 areprocessed according to block 806. In each iteration of the loop ofblocks 804-808, the particular extraneous application processed issometimes referred to as the subject application.

At block 806, panoplex-customization logic 606 removes the subjectapplication using the removal script of the subject application, e.g.,removal script 616A. In some embodiments, removal script 616A is an MSIscript, execution of which includes de-registration of use by thesubject application of any required resources such as DLLs and softassets. In an alternative embodiment, panoplex-customization logic 606identifies and removes those of the previously required resources nolonger required by any remaining application recursively at block 806.

Processing transfers through next block 808 to loop block 804 in whichpanoplex-customization logic 606 processes the next extraneousapplication according to block 806. When all extraneous applicationshave been processed by panoplex-customization logic 606 according to theloop of blocks 804-808, processing according to logic flow diagram 800transfers to block 810.

At block 810, panoplex-customization logic 606 customizes a registry inoperating system 508 of panoplex 502. In particular,panoplex-customization logic 606 includes user-specific data in theregistry to make the ultimate completed computer system specific to theuser. Such information can include user names, user initials, companyname, time zone, serial numbers, user accounts, initial passwords,network specifics, and the like. Block 810 represents anotheropportunity for optimization of the customized panoplex. In someembodiments, panoplex-customization logic 606 creates a unique initialpassword for an administrative account and creates a restricted accountfor casual use of the ultimately completed computer.

At block 812, panoplex-customization logic 606 cleans the registry,thereby removing unnecessary keys, files, file associations, andshortcuts, and checks for registry coherence. Registry cleaning is knownand is not described further herein.

At block 814, panoplex-customization logic 606 verifies the presence ofall expected files in panoplex 502 after customization in the mannerdescribed above.

At block 816, panoplex-customization logic 606 corrects file-typeassociations within the registry such that all file-type associationsrefer to applications that remain after removal of the extraneousapplications. In one embodiment, the build order includes the user'spreferred file-type associations; panoplex-customization logic 606implements those preferences in the registry at block 816.

After block 816, processing according to logic flow diagram 800completes. Thereafter, end-user disk 108 (which now contains only theipselecta 255 of the original panoplex 211) is removed from thecustomization computer and installed in computer 104 to thereby providethe customized functionality to computer 104. In an alternativeembodiment, end-user disk 108 is installed in computer 104 forcustomization within and by computer 104. In either embodiment, computer104 is fully customized for, and deliverable to, the user after suchcustomization.

By customizing the panoplex of end-user disk 108 concurrently with theassembly of the other hardware components of computer 104, suchcustomization does not increase the overall build time of computer 104yet renders computer 104 fully customized to the content choices of theuser.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a process 900 that can be used for handlinglarge panoplexes. In some embodiments, panoplex 502 can be larger thanthe capacity of end-user disk drive 108 onto which panoplex 502 is to becopied. FIG. 9 shows an embodiment in which such disparity in capacitybetween master disk 106 and end-user disk 108 is present.Panoplex-replication logic 604 (as shown in FIG. 6) duplicates panoplex502 (as shown in FIG. 5) of master disk 106 (as shown in FIG. 9) on toan intermediate disk drive 902 of sufficient capacity to store theentirety of panoplex 502. Panoplex-customization logic 606 (as shown inFIG. 6) customizes panoplex 502 on intermediate disk drive 902 in themanner described above with respect to logic flow diagram 800 (as shownin FIG. 8) and/or with respect to block 414. After such customization,the amount of data in the customized panoplex is sufficiently small tobe stored on end-user disk 108. In a manner similar to that describedabove with respect to block 412, panoplex-customization logic 606duplicates the customized ipselecta from the original panoplex ontoend-user disk drive 108. In general, a disk-image copy will not workwhen copying from a larger disk to a smaller disk. However, data-imagecopying, which copies only those sectors containing data, can work. Insome embodiments, the duplication process includes media duplicationsystems, such as those from Logicube, that run software that dynamicallyscales an image to a different disk capacity (e.g., 190 GB of data froma 500-GB disk drive can readily fit on a 200-GB or 250-GB disk drivewith space left over for other data). For file-allocation table (FAT)file systems, such supplication systems can defragment and compress onthe fly. A file-by-file copy can ensure the most efficient use ofstorage capacity of end-user disk drive 108 by not copying unusedportions of sectors containing data. In one embodiment,panoplex-customization logic 606 defragments the customized panoplex ofintermediate disk drive 902 prior to copying the customized ipselecta toend-user disk drive 108.

Once the customized ipselecta are replicated in end-user disk drive 108,intermediate disk drive 902 can be reused, beginning with replication ofdata from master disk 106 in a subsequent customization of panoplex 502.In addition, end-user disk drive 108 (which now contains only theipselecta of the original panoplex stored thereon), is installed in acomputer to form a complete and functional, yet fully customized,product (e.g., computer 104 or percepter 105 after gryphing) called thetotum.

In other embodiments, more than one panoplex will be customized andinstalled in computer 104. For example, the primary disk of a desktopmachine might include a new-technology file system (NTFS) diskcontaining the operating system and customized programs while asecondary file-allocation table (FAT) disk holds other soft assets suchas music, video, or text.

User Selection of Content of the Panoplex

As described above, the panoplex is customized as specified inuser-supplied information. In short, the user chooses some content ofthe panoplex, thereby implicitly relegating the remainder for removalfrom the panoplex. In even a modest-sized 40-GB disk drive, thousands ofdigital soft assets can be installed. In the music-playing cell phoneexample above, some 20,000 songs could be included in the panoplex of a60-GB drive. Disk drives of many times that capacity are nowavailable—750 GB—with capacities expected to double almost every year.The problems in easily finding, manipulating, and selecting from suchenormous volumes of information expose the weaknesses in currentselection and purchase methodologies. In particular, navigation must bemade clearer and easier, complex associations must be easier to express,long lists must be indexed better, numerous selections must be easier toremember, searching must enable dynamic and concurrent narrowing ofavailable content, and typing requirements must be minimized.Accordingly, an improved user interface to assist the user in navigatingthe vast amount of data for selection is important. Those improvementsare described below.

A word regarding the environment in which the user interface is used ishelpful to understanding and appreciating the describedcontent-customization system. In the previously described embodiment, inwhich the panoplex is customized by a computer manufacturer, theselections made by the user are included in the build order. In someembodiments, the selections are made through a conventional web browserused by the user and the user interface is implemented by a web-basedapplication implemented by a server that collects data to construct thebuild order and to forward the build order to the manufacturer. Itshould be appreciated that selection of desired soft assets can also bemade automatically on behalf of an enterprise customer making an order.Appropriate content can be selected for each respective end-user withinthe enterprise according to such characteristics as his or herorganizational rank and/or the function within the enterprise.

In the illustrative example described above in which a customer makes anin-store selection of content to include on a newly purchaseddigital-music player or music-playing cell phone, the user interface canbe implemented within in-store computers serving as kiosks. Userselections can be stored on smart cards by the kiosks for subsequentreading and digital-music-player-content customization at the register.Alternatively, each user can manually enter her or his name at thekiosks and the user selections can be communicated along with eachuser's name through a local area network to the register for subsequentcustomization of digital-music-player content.

In another embodiment, the computer can be customized after purchase bythe user himself or herself. In this embodiment, the user interface isimplemented within the computer itself. A pre-selection boot programthat forces user selection of desired content is included such that thecomputer is not usable by the user until selections are made. Paymentfor selected content can be effected through a network connection. Inanother embodiment, the device attaches to a network that provides theuser interface and authorization for content selection.

In all these embodiments, the selector experiences a user interfacethrough which the user indicates choices by manipulation of one or moreinput devices. The result is selection data that (i) can be included ina web order; (ii) can be used to generate end-user profiles in a large,enterprise order; (iii) can be sent to point-of-sale equipment forcustomization of a device at the time of purchase; or (iv) can be usedto perform local customization after receipt of the panoplex by theend-user, for example.

FIG. 10 illustrates various panes of a window 1000 (e.g., one that couldbe displayed on a video monitor or other display device) used in oneexemplary graphical user interface for selection of soft assets of apanoplex. In some embodiments, window 1000 includes four (4) panes 1002,1004, 1006 and 1008, each of which is independently scrollable.Scrolling panes of a window is known and not described herein. In thisillustrative example, window 1000 implements a user interface forselecting video content of a panoplex. Panes 1002, 1004, 1006 and 1008can generally be re-arranged, e.g., in accordance with user-specifiedpreferences. However, in some embodiments, pane 1002 includes achecklist of categories; pane 1004 includes a list of instances of aselected category; pane 1006 includes a checklist of occurrences of aselected instance; and pane 1008 displays details of a selectedoccurrence.

In the context of selection of video content, categories listed in pane1002 can include such things as genre, actor, producer, title, year ofrelease, etc. Each category can have subcategories shown as indenteditems in a “tree” view similar to the tree folder structure in theubiquitous Windows Explorer® included with all Windows® operatingsystems of Microsoft Corporation. For example, subcategories of theactor category can include male, female, and awards. The subcategory ofawards can have further subcategories of winner, nominee, Oscar®, GoldenGlobe®, etc. In this illustrative example, category 1010 is highlightedas selected and represents the actor category.

Pane 1004 includes a checklist of instances of the selected category,e.g., category 1010. In this example, pane 1004 includes a checklist ofactors listed alphabetically. Actor 1012 is shown as selected andhighlighted in this illustrative example.

Pane 1006 includes a checklist of occurrences of the selected instance,e.g., actor 1012. In this example, pane 1006 includes a checklist offilms and/or television shows in which the selected actor has appeared.Occurrence 1014 is shown as selected and highlighted in thisillustrative example.

Pane 1008 includes general information regarding selected occurrence1014. In this example, pane 1008 includes general information about theparticular film represented by occurrence 1014. Such general informationcan include, for example, the title, appearing actors, producer,director, genre, year of release, a representative image (e.g., artworkfrom a poster or a DVD cover), a brief summary such as what appears on aDVD cover, and perhaps a review of the film. In some embodiments, pane1008 or another pane shows an indication of price for each possibleselection. In some embodiments, prices will change, depending on otherselections that have been purchased (e.g., for example, providing avolume discount for purchasing more selections.

Selections made by the user in any of panes 1002, 1004, 1006 and 1008can change the information represented in others of panes 1002, 1004,1006 and 1008. However, in some embodiments, user choices persist. Tofully appreciate the way in which choices persist, it is helpful toconsider the choices provided to the user in this illustrative userinterface.

FIG. 11 shows a modified window 1100 (the result of window 1000 in whichthe user has made some choices). Unlike conventional check boxes, whichtoggle between two states, a checked state and an unchecked state, inresponse to actuation by a user, the check boxes of window 1000 cyclesequentially through more than two states, namely, six states in thisillustrative example.

FIG. 12 is a state diagram of state transitions 1200 that are obtainedin response to actuation of a check box of window 1000 by the user. Instate 1202, the check box is unchecked. This is the initial state of allcheck boxes in window 1000, in some embodiments. In state 1204, thecheck box is shown as a dollar sign to indicate that the user intends topurchase the associated item. Occurrences 1112 (FIG. 11), 1114, and 1116are shown as selected for purchase by the user. In state 1206, the checkbox is shown as a selection check mark to indicate that the associateditem is to be included in the selection criteria for occurrences shownin pane 1006. In the example of FIG. 11, check boxes 1104 and 1108indicate that occurrences in pane 1006 should include films and/ortelevision shows in which the two associated actors both appear. Checkbox 1102 indicates that occurrences in pane 1006 should belong to thecategory associated with check box 1102, e.g., films and/or televisionshows associated with awards.

In state 1208, the check box is shown as crossed out to indicate thatthe associated item is to be included as a negative selection criterionfor occurrences shown in pane 1006. In the example of FIG. 11, check box1106 indicates that occurrences in pane 1006 should exclude films and/ortelevision shows in which the associated actor appears. In state 1210,the check box is shown as a question mark to indicate that the user isundecided with respect to the associated item. In some embodiments, theuser is prompted to review all items designated as undecided prior tofinalizing the selection. In essence, when designating an item asundecided, the user is asking to be reminded of the need to return tothe item and make a final decision upon finalization of the entireselection process, as if to say, “Please don't let me leave this processwithout reconsidering this item.” In the example of FIG. 11, check box1110 indicates that the user is undecided about occurrence 1014 andwould like to be reminded to reconsider this choice prior to finalizingall selections. In state 1212, the check box is shown as an arrow toindicate a change in perspective. This change in perspective within theuser interface of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 is sometimes referred to aspivoting and is described more completely below.

The user changes the state of a check box by simply clicking on thecheck box. On each clicking by the user, the state changes in the mannershown in state diagram 1200. As an alternative, the user can right-clickon the check box to see a pop-up menu in which the states of statediagram 1200 are presented to the user for selection.

In some embodiments, pane 1008 includes active text, much like ahypertext link on a conventional web page. Clicking on such active textcauses pivoting. Consider an example in which the user clicks on thedirector's name in pane 1008 with panes 1002, 1004, 1006 and 1008 in thestates described above, with the actor category selected in pane 1002,and pane 1004 listing actors, and pane 1006 listing films and/ortelevision shows in which the selected actors have appeared. When theuser clicks on the director's name in pane 1008, a new perspective iscreated around the director's name. The “actors” category is de-selectedand the category of “directors” is now selected. Pane 1004 is changed toinclude a checklist of directors. The item of the list pertaining to thedirector whose name was clicked in pane 1008 is selected andhighlighted, automatically scrolling to show the director's name in thelist of pane 1004 if necessary. Pane 1006 is changed to include filmsand/or television shows directed by the selected director. Theparticular film or television show represented in pane 1008 shows asselected and highlighted, automatically scrolling to show the film ortelevision show in the list of pane 1006 if necessary.

The user may also right-click on active text in pane 1008. In response,a pop-up menu allows the user to select from one of the states of statediagram 1200 (FIG. 12). The states can be represented by the icons shownin state diagram 1200 and/or by textual descriptions of the states,e.g., “Clear any actions for this director,” “Buy all work by thisdirector,” “Show work by this director,” “Hide work by this director,”“Remind me to reconsider this director,” and “Shift focus to thisdirector” for start-anew state 1202, purchase state 1204, selectionstate 1206, de-selection state 1208, tentative state 1210, andshift-focus state 1212, respectively.

The states represented in modified window 1100 (FIG. 11) persist. Inparticular, the particular state of state diagram 1200 for a particularcategory, instance, or occurrence remains unchanged when the category,instance, or occurrence is no longer visible and subsequently becomesvisible again.

In addition, the lists of panes 1002, 1004, 1006 and 1008 are dynamic inthat changes in states of items in any pane are immediately andautomatically reflected in others of panes 1002, 1004, 1006 and 1008.For example, if the user has previously selected (at selection state1206) the category of awards and then selects (again at selection state1206) the category of genres, pane 1004 immediately and automaticallychanges from a list of works that are associated with awards to a listof genres of works. If pane 1004 includes a list of actors and anadditional actor is selected (yet again at selection state 1206), theworks listed in pane 1006 are immediately and automatically pared downto include only those works in which the newly selected actor has alsoappeared. If a different work is selected in pane 1006, pane 1008 isimmediately and automatically updated to show information regarding thenewly selected work.

In addition to being able to change states of individual items, the useris presented graphical-user-interface elements to allow changing thestate of all items in a particular pane, such as pane 1006. This allowsthe user to use the user-interface elements above to create a list inpane 1006 of all works meeting certain criteria, e.g., all romanticcomedies in which Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks appeared. The user can thenchange all works listed in pane 1006 to a particular state, e.g., state1204 indicating that the works are to be purchased.

As the user adds items to be purchased (at purchase state 1204), arunning total is updated to reflect the cost to the user if the userwere to finalize all selections at that time. In one embodiment, asecond total is given that includes all uncertain items (items that havebeen checked as “uncertain” or “undecided” at tentative state 1210) anda difference between the two totals. This allows the user to comparevarious collections of content.

The interface also provides limitation via paired sliding controls thatprovide dynamic constraints to the otherwise-chosen search results. Suchlimitations can be placed on any ordered dimension, such as releasedate. By sliding to the extreme right, a user could constrain selectionto new releases. By sliding in the other direction, she could limit theselection to classics. This versatile approach can be used with metricssuch as price, popularity, audience, program length, and the like.

As long lists may need to be traversed to locate desired entries, asingle sliding control can be used to alpha-numerically index into atable without need for keystrokes or mouse clicks. This locating toolacts as an electronic thumb index and can be integrated into the panescroll bar.

Due to the abundant choice expected to be offered to the user, the userinterface provides the ability to save a current selection and tore-load the saved current selection at a later time. This provides theuser with the opportunity to carefully evaluate and research variousoptions of the selection.

Goal-Driven, Dynamic Pricing

Hardware and software are economically complementary goods. Makingsoftware cheaper makes the hardware that runs it easier to sell.Hardware devices are more expensive than most individual softwareprograms or percepta, but support lower profit margins. Options for ahardware device like a notebook computer, e.g., more memory, a largerdrive, an extra battery, some cables, a carrying case and a printer arelimited. However, the programs and other soft assets in a panoplex, asillustrated in the music-playing cell phone above, are virtuallyunlimited and support higher profit margins on both the immediate saleand on follow-on upgrades.

Selling a device with an accompanying selection of soft assets togetherprovide a device manufacturer the benefit of considerable latitudepricing the total sale. Additionally benefits also incur, as thecustomer is already buying a new device, the marketing acquisition costfor the software is nil. As hardware sales dwarf software sales, theeconomies of scale are high compared to other software sales businessmodels, whether based on clicks or bricks.

Pricing approaches can vary by cost, perceived value, or market rate.Pricing can provide signals as to quality of an item. Relative pricingcan steer a purchaser from a low-margin product to higher-marginproducts. By dynamically pricing, a vendor can alter the likelihood,size, product mix, and profitability of a potential sale. Furthermore,by dynamically aggregating the flow of such sales along particularcharacteristics, a company can continuously steer towards attainingcomplex, and sometimes conflicting corporate goals. The generalpsychology of pricing favors setting a reference price and makingreductions relative to that reference price, i.e., a “sale.” Thus,prices in a broad sense includes sticker price, rebates, discounts,coupons, freebees, two-for-one offers, and the like. Reductions can beevent-driven and time-limited to spur a customer to a desired action.

The total price is updated by applying sets of rules, “i.e. the pricingpolicies,” to all selected content (those items that have been checkedas “to purchase” at purchase state 1204). Each pricing policy, e.g.,pricing policy 620A (FIG. 6) or pricing rules 244 (FIG. 2A) or pricingengine 1300 (FIG. 13), specifies conditions and associated pricing. Avery simple pricing policy is fixed pricing, wherein the price of theassociated content is fixed and remains the same regardless of othercircumstances surrounding the selection. A slightly more complex pricingpolicy is bundling pricing, in which the price is one value if anotheritem is not selected and another, lower value if the other item isselected. Consider as an example that the Microsoft Visio® drawingprogram is one price if the Microsoft Word® word-processing program isnot selected and another, lower price if the Microsoft Word®word-processing program is selected. Consider as another example, thatif every album by a particular musical artist is purchased, then thosealbums are priced at a 25% discount.

Another pricing policy that can be represented as pricing policy 620A isa hardware-bundling pricing policy. For example, a CD/DVD-bumingapplication can be offered at a substantial discount, if computer 104includes a CD/DVD drive capable of writing to disks. Similarly,photo-viewing, photo-editing, and photo-printing software can bediscounted in price if the order were to include a digital camera, extramemory, and/or a color printer.

The conditions of a pricing policy are intended to be sufficientlyflexible that the entity designing the pricing of the panoplex has greatlatitude in specifying conditions for various prices. For example, anoffice suite can have a default price and a much-lower price if acompeting office suite is in an undecided state (at tentative state1210) or, in an alternative pricing policy, if the competing officesuite has been viewed for an appreciable amount of time in pane 1008. A“please come back” pricing policy can set a default price and a heavilydiscounted price if the content was selected (at purchase state 1204)and then subsequently de-selected (at tentative state 1210 or start-anewstate 1202).

As another example, a subscription-service provider such as aninternet-service provider can provide large subsidies for other contentto ensure a long-term service contract—much like rebates sometimesoffered by Internet service providers on retail computer equipment. Asubscription service provider can offer up to some amount (e.g., $200)of free software in exchange for a long-term contract (e.g., 2 years).Likewise, software publishers can subsidize subscriptions for newreleases and updates to be delivered automatically.

In some ways, the content of a panoplex is a time-limited resource likeseats on an airline flight or rooms in a hotel. A computer shippedwithout content is an irrevocably lost opportunity to capture revenue.In addition to the temporal sensitivity of the content, the panoplexcontent has low variable costs, is a resalable, but perishable,inventory, and has fluctuating demand with known historical data (salesfluctuate with the start of the school year, holidays, release of newoperating systems or a new class of high-speed processors). Accordingly,some yield-management pricing approaches used by airlines and thehospitality industry are applicable to sideloading.

FIG. 13 shows a pricing engine 1300 used to implement panoplex pricing(e.g., such as pricing rules 244 shown in FIG. 2A) in some embodiments.In some embodiments, pricing engine 1300 includes a micro-economicpricing engine 1302 and a macro-economic pricing engine 1304, each ofwhich monitors the state of the order and provides pricing informationto an order-management artificial-intelligence engine 1306, which inturn provides pricing information to user interface 1308. User interface1308 controls the user interface described above with respect to FIG.10, FIG. 11, and FIG. 12.

In some embodiments, micro-economic pricing engine 1302 processesorder-centric information specific to the particular user and to theparticular selection being made by that user. Customer-valuation engine1310 determines a particular value of the user-as-a-customer, based onsuch criteria as past ordering history and prospective future orderinghistory. In some embodiments, order characteristics 1312 include suchinformation as the size of the current order (e.g., number of customizedcomputers, value of customized computers—high-end versus bargainmachines, etc.). Customer-relations-management database 1314 containsthe customer history data used by customer-valuation engine 1310 indetermining the value of the user-as-a-customer. Product-pricingdatabase 1316 includes pricing information specific to the content ofthe panoplex and includes pricing policies such as pricing policy 620A(see FIG. 6). Customer-segmentation engine 1318 determines a value ofthe user as a customer from information other than the user's history asa customer—e.g., using the customer's address information to determine alevel of affluence, determining from address information that the useris a business customer or is a private individual customer, etc. Currentpromotions 1320 represents current, short-term pricing policies and canbe used to periodically fine-tune overall pricing policies.

Macro-economic pricing engine 1304 processes information independent ofthe particular order to influence pricing on a larger scale, e.g., forall sales from a given entity referred to herein as the seller.Business-history database 1322 includes information of various economicmetrics of the seller and/or of the industry in which the sellerparticipates. Seasonal—order-history database 1324 represents buyingpatterns over time—identifying patterns specific to holidays, the startof the school year, beginning/ending of fiscal quarters, and simply thefour seasons of winter, spring, summer, and autumn. Corporate interimresults 1326 include a recent history of economic performance of theseller. Analyst expectations 1328 include information regarding whatfinancial-market experts expect from the seller and suggest consequenteffects in the value of the seller's equity, based on success or failurein meeting those expectations. Corporate objectives 1330 representlarge-scale economic objectives of the seller, as measured by, forexample, Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) and the like, and may veryclosely correlate to, or diverge significantly from, analystexpectations 1328. Competition and industry trends 1332 representstendencies of competitors and the industry and the overall economygenerally—e.g., to promote growth at the expense of profit or to promoteprofit at the expense of growth, and the degree to which to promote oneover the other. Pricing policies 1334 and pricing rules and actions 1336allow for manually crafted adjustments in macro-economic pricing engine1304.

Order-management artificial-intelligence engine 1306 combines theinformation, targets, and adjustments of micro-economic pricing engine1302 and macro-economic pricing engine 1304 to provide an actualoffering price to user interface 1308 for display to the user, inresponse to a change in the current selection. For efficiency, allcriteria, independent of the particular details of the order beingplaced by the user, are evaluated and processed one time to formbaseline-pricing properties, such as a base price and/or minimumacceptable margin. Thus, in response to any change in the selectionbeing made by the user, only a fairly modest evaluation of the pricingpolicies of the specifically selected content is required. The pricerepresented to the user can be updated and redisplayed relativelyquickly, giving the impression of immediate response by the userinterface.

Soft Assets

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a validation process 1400. In someembodiments, software is installed and validated that the install workedcorrectly. The validation process is used in some embodiments, to verifythat a soft asset (such as one or more software programs) will functionproperly if installed onto a storage medium during a panoplex-generationprocedure. In some embodiments, the content of the installation packageis examined for items that can conflict with other applications in thesuperset of soft assets in a panoplex 211. This validation starts atblock 1410 (operation v1) where the installation package is opened. Atdecision block 1412 (operation v2), a check is made for conflicts (someof the items that may cause conflict are Component Object Model (COM)classes that may be shared with the other applications in the panoplexsuperset). In some embodiments, if such a conflict is found, the processmoves to block 1414 where one requirement for this validation operationis that the program author must change the installation program to useside-by-side objects, and that the Class and SelfReg tables for theinstallation process contain no entries.

In some embodiments, a decision block 1420 is provided to check whetherthe installation program requires a reboot or schedules reboot entriesas part of the installation, and if so, the process moves to block 1418,and the author (e.g., the software company that created the soft asset)must remove the requirement to reboot. In other embodiments, therequirement for no reboot is dropped and the program may ask for areboot as part of installation. At decision block 1424, a check is madeto determine whether installation of the soft asset creates “permanentcomponents” that would not be erased if the soft asset were uninstalledor removed by gryphing. If so, the process moves to block 1422, and thevalidation program or its user would validate with the author whether ornot the permanent data was unavoidably required to be permanent, and ifnot, the permanent aspect of that data would need to be removed by theauthor before the soft asset could be validated or certified to beusable in a panoplex. At decision block 1428, a check is made todetermine whether installation of the soft asset is performed by “customaction entries” that would not be transparent as to what action wasbeing performed (i.e., in some embodiments, the validation processrequires that all actions performed by the installation program bevisible and verifiable by the validation process. If custom actions werebeing used, the process moves to block 1426, where the validationprogram or its user would require the author to remove the customactions and make all actions performed by the installation program bevisible and verifiable in order to be validated or certified to beusable in a panoplex. If at block 1428, none of the validation decisionblocks (1412, 1420, 1424, and 1428) caused a rebuild of the installationpackage by the author, then the end block is reached indicating that thesoft asset and its installation process were validated to functionproperly. In the other cases, corrective action would be requested andat block 1416, the author would rebuild the installation package to meetthe validation requirements, and the rebuilt installation package wouldre-enter the process 1400 at block 1410.

FIG. 15A is a flow diagram of a subtractive-installation method 1501. Insome embodiments, computer-implemented method 1501 includes copying 1510a panoplex containing a plurality of soft assets onto a storage device;obtaining 1512 customer-specific selection data differentiating anipselecta of authorized soft assets from a relicta of unauthorized softassets; and automatically culling 1514 the unauthorized soft assets fromthe panoplex such that the storage device contains only the authorizedassets and storage space is available in place of the unauthorizedassets, and wherein the plurality of soft assets is unavailable to theuser before the culling operation is performed.

FIG. 15B is a block diagram of a system 1502. In some embodiments,system 1502 includes a managed set 220 of one or more digital masterpanoplex images 1520, each holding a set of soft assets, a duplicationfacility 1522 coupled to the managed set and operable to transfer aninstance of a selected master panoplex image onto a storage device, adata interface 1524 eliciting and receiving selection data for acustomized subset of soft assets in the selected master panoplex image,a gryphing engine 1526 operable to selectively remove certain assetsfrom the storage medium based on the selection data, and a chargingmechanism 1528 operable to charge a selected account an amount of moneybased on the selection data, and to authorize delivery of a device thatuses the soft assets available on the storage medium to a consumer.

FIG. 15C is a flow diagram of a method 1503. In some embodiments, method1503 includes a computer-implemented method including providing 1530 acomputer-readable master storage medium having a plurality of panoplexesstored thereon including a first panoplex that includes a firstplurality of installed soft assets and a second panoplex that includes adifferent second plurality of installed soft assets, providing 1532 afirst computer-readable and computer-writable end-user storage medium,obtaining 1534 data that specifies a first selected one of the pluralityof panoplexes, and writing 1536 the first selected panoplex to the firstend-user storage medium, wherein the first plurality of installed softassets are unavailable for use until a further operation uninstalls asubset of the soft assets. In other embodiments, this method isperformed in a different order than that shown, for example, theproviding 1532 a first computer-readable and computer-writable end-userstorage medium, and the obtaining 1534 data that specifies a firstselected one of the plurality of panoplexes, are performed in reverseorder from that shown.

In some such embodiments, method 1503 optionally includes creating thefirst panoplex by installing the first plurality of soft assets. In somesuch embodiments, method 1503 optionally includes uninstalling 1535 aset of unselected soft assets from the first-selected panoplex beforewriting the first-selected panoplex to the first end-user storagemedium.

FIG. 15D is a flow diagram of a computer-implemented method 1504. Insome embodiments, computer-implemented method 1504 includes generating1540 a panoplex that includes a universe of separately selectableinstalled soft assets, copying 1542 the panoplex to each one of aplurality of computer-readable and computer-writable end-user storagemedia, obtaining 1544 selection data that distinguishes ipselecta (afirst subset of the plurality of installed soft assets that are to beretained) from relicta (a second subset of the plurality of installedsoft assets that are not to be retained), gryphing 1546 a selected firstend-user storage medium (erasing and/or uninstalling the relicta fromthe end-user storage medium as specified on the selection data), anddelivering 1548 the gryphed end-user storage medium.

Example File System Structures

In some embodiments, a storage medium having a FAT32 volume is dividedinto four areas: the boot record, the File Allocation Tables, the rootdirectory, and the data area. In some embodiments, the boot record isthe first 3 sectors of a FAT32 volume. It defines the volume, as well asthe whereabouts of the other three areas. If the volume is bootable,then the first sector of the boot record also contains the code requiredto enter the file system and boot the OS. The File Allocation Table is aseries of addresses that is accessed as a lookup table to see whichcluster comes next, when loading a file or traversing a directory. Forexample, if the system had just loaded cluster 23, it would look upoffset 23 in the FAT and the address there would be that of the nextcluster; typically 24. Because the FAT is such a vital data structure,there are typically two copies (i.e. FAT1 and FAT2) so that corruptionof the FAT can be detected and, hopefully, intelligently repaired. Theroot directory is fixed in length and typically located at the start ofthe volume (after the FAT), but FAT32 treats the root directory as justanother cluster chain in the data area. However, even in FAT32 volumes,the root directory will typically follow immediately after the two FATs.The data area fills the rest of the volume, and is divided into clusters(the size of which depend on the total size of the volume or storagemedium); it is here that the file data is stored. Subdirectories arefiles with a particular structure that is understood by the file system,and are marked as being directories rather than files by setting the“directory” attribute bit in the directory entry that points to it. Afile has at least one and usually three components: a directory entrythat defines the file, a set of values in the FAT that define the dataclusters, if any, and/or none or more data clusters that contain theactual data itself. If a file has zero length, then there are no dataclusters or FAT entries associated with it.

In contrast, Microsoft's NTFS (new technology file system) includesseveral system files, all of which are hidden from view on the NTFSvolume. A system file is one used by the file system to store itsmetadata and to implement the file system. System files are placed onthe volume by the Format utility. One embodiment of NTFS directorymetadata is shown in the following Table of Metadata Stored in the NTFSMaster File Table: File MFT System File Name Record Purpose of the FileMaster file $Mft 0 Contains one base file record for table each file andfolder on an NTFS volume. If the allocation information for a file orfolder is too large to fit within a single record, other file recordsare allocated as well. Master file $MftMirr 1 A duplicate image of thefirst four table 2 records of the MFT. This file guarantees access tothe MFT in case of a single-sector failure. Log file $LogFile 2 Containsa list of transaction steps used for NTFS recoverability. Log file sizedepends on the volume size and can be as large as 4 MB. It is used byWindows NT/2000 to restore consistency to NTFS after a system failure.Volume $Volume 3 Contains information about the volume, such as thevolume label and the volume version. Attribute $AttrDef 4 A table ofattribute names, numbers, definitions and descriptions. Root file $ 5The root folder. name index Cluster $Bitmap 6 A representation of thevolume bitmap showing which clusters are in use. Boot sector $Boot 7Includes the BPB used to mount the volume and additional bootstraploader code used if the volume is bootable. Bad cluster $BadClus 8Contains bad clusters for the volume. file Security $Secure 9 Containsunique security descriptors file for all files within a volume. Upcase$Upcase 10 Converts lowercase characters to table matching Unicodeuppercase characters. NTFS $Extend 11 Used for various optionalextension extensions such as quotas, reparse file point data, and objectidentifiers. 12-15 Reserved for future use.

In some embodiments, other metadata is used in the directory structures.In some embodiments, Windows XP and Vista support File System FilterDrivers (FSFD) that layers over a file system driver. A filter driverhas the potential to see all file system requests and optionally modifyor complete them. A fast secure erase facility for gryphing can beimplemented as such a FSFD such that a normal erase command is executedas a fast secure erase when appropriate. In some embodiments, such aFSFD would be activated during gryphing and disabled after gryphingcompletion. Because this can be implemented as a low-level function andoptimized for speed, it can execute very efficiently. In an alternativeembodiment, fast secure erase can be implemented using other filesystems and directory structures that are known to those of skill in theart, and one of skill in the art, in some embodiments, can readily findand use information on any particular file system and directorystructure, and optionally use a low-level operating system or program todirectly access sectors, clusters, boot records, and other structuresneeded to create, read, modify, and/or write data needed in order togryph a storage medium to erase non-selected soft assets according tothe methods described herein for some embodiments of the presentinvention. Since Windows XP and perhaps other high-level operatingsystems provide certain “hooks” to access data on the hardware, someembodiments utilize those hooks to fully erase and uninstallnon-selected soft assets. For operating systems that do not allow directand full access to the hardware or which maintain backup copies oferased directory entries or other metadata that allow recovery afterstorage media failure, in some embodiments, the present invention uses abasic low-level operating system such as MS-DOS, which allows read andwrite access to any disk sectors on a disk-drive storage medium,including those used by the high-level operating system for itsdirectory.

However, such low-level operating systems or programs can also be usedto unerase files and reconstruct data structures (unerase programs areknown and readily available with various features and capabilities.Thus, in some embodiments, a fast-secure erase is used by the presentinvention.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of a fast-secure erase method 1600 used toenhance system security and make it more difficult to reconstruct erasedrelicta culled by gryphing. At block 1610, a storage medium having apanoplex is gryphed to remove non-selected soft assets. At block 1612,the process 1600 more fully obliterates directory entries, FAT tablecluster linkages, NTFS MFT data, and/or any other metadata in thedirectory, in order to make it much more difficult to reconstruct erasedsoft assets that were culled from the panoplex. In some embodiments, thegryphing process creates a listing or table of entries to erase, and thefast secure erase in used instead of a less-secure erase in the firstculling operation. In some embodiments, metadata to be culled includesone or more information fields such as file name, E5 erase flag, firstcluster location, offsets, file size, data run information and the like.In some embodiments, such directory metadata is overwritten with zeros(“zeroed”), while in other embodiments, any other suitable data patterns(including, in some embodiments, pseudo-random or random data) are used.In some embodiments, the operating system (e.g., Windows XP or theupcoming VISTA) that will eventually run the device having the gryphedstorage medium coupled to it may not be able or willing to directlyallow such complete obliteration of directory data for the erased softassets that were culled by the gryphing program (the relicta), and insome such embodiments, a low-level program and/or operating system,capable of directly or indirectly reading and writing to anywhere on theintransient signal carrier or storage medium, is used to provide thecapability and function needed to implement the fast-secure erasefunction.

Further, in some embodiments, at block 1614, the fast-secure erasefunction also includes a “enablement-metadata-erase” function. Manyprograms, in order to run, require a specific key (enablement metadata)to be entered that enables functionality of some or all of the softasset (e.g., Office Suite programs). In some embodiments, theenablement-metadata-erase function operates to locate and obliteratesuch enablement-metadata or registration-key data that may be locatedoutside the directory metadata.

Further, in some embodiments, at block 1616, the fast-secure erasefunction also includes a “registry-key-erase” function. Many programs,in order to run, require one or more specific keys (registry metadata)to be entered that enables functionality of some or all of the softasset. In some embodiments, the registry-key-erase function operates tolocate and obliterate such registry-key that may be located outside thedirectory metadata. In some such embodiments, this function alsocompresses the remaining registry data or eliminates the spacespreviously used for relicta registry data.

Further, in some embodiments, at block 1618, the fast-secure erasefunction also includes a “background-erase;” a background-runningprogram or function that systematically locates storage-medium sectorsor clusters of data which are not used for holding the ipselecta or thedata added after gryphing (e.g., the user's new data or programs) andwhich can be assumed to have held files or other data structures of therelicta, and writes a predetermined data pattern (e.g., zeros, ones,patterns of ones and zeros, and/or pseudo-random or random data) ontothose file sectors and clusters. In some such embodiments, a datastructure is created during gryphing that specifically identifies thesectors and clusters holding relicta data, and that data structure isused (in conjunction with a checking function that verifies suchclusters and sectors have not already been overwritten with new or userdata) to direct the background erase.

Thus, in some embodiments, the fast-secure erase 1600 obliterates (e.g.,overwrites with other data) all or substantially all the directorymetadata associated with identifying and locating relicta (soft assetsthat were erased by the gryphing program). In some embodiments, thefast-secure erase runs a background-erase program that runs during idleor wait times of the processor, and systematically obliterates thefile-data areas (e.g., sectors and/or clusters) where relicta werelocated. In some embodiments, the fast secure erase includes bothobliterating directory metadata as well as obliterating, through abackground-erase, the relicta file-data areas.

In some embodiments, because of the potential for conflict, COM classesmust be installed in the side-by-side mode that makes them private tothe using software application, not shared between all applications.This means that there must be no COM class registration in theinstallation package for the software application. A Class ID (CLSID) istypically a 128-bit number that represents a unique identifier for asoftware application or application component. The validation can beimplemented using example Visual Basic script as follows, which testsfor the presence of entries in the Class and SelfReg tables in theinstallation package: Database = Installer.OpenDatabase(the MSIinstallation package) View = Database.OpenView (‘Select CLSID fromClass’) View.Execute Classdata = View.Fetch If Classdata is Nothing....there are no CLSID entries View2 = Database.OpenView (‘Select Filefrom Class’) View2.Execute SelfRegData = View2.Fetch If SelfRegData isNothing there are no entries in the SelfReg table

At decision block 1420 (operation v3), a check is made for aninstallation package that causes or would cause a reboot of the computersystem, which interferes with the process of creating the superset. Ifthe application in the package is removed from the superset during theCreateFinalSubset API call and causes a reboot, this delays the creationof the final subset and is a hold-up when used during a manufacturingprocess.

The requirement for validation at this operation is that the executesequence in the installation package contains no Reboot orScheduleReboot entries. A Visual Basic script example of this operationis as follows: Database = Installer.OpenDatabase(the MSI installationpackage) View = Database.OpenView (‘ Select Action fromInstallExecuteSequence where Action = ‘Reboot’ ) View.Execute RebootData= View.Fetch If RebootData is not Nothing there are Reboots View2 =Database.OpenView (‘ Select Action from InstallExecuteSequence whereAction = ‘ScheduleReboot’ View2.Execute SchedData = View2.Fetch IfSchedData is not Nothing there are scheduled reboots in the package.

At decision block 1420 (operation v4)—Permanent components should not beadded to the computer system when the installation package is installed.A permanent component is one that is not uninstalled when theapplication is uninstalled. This means that unnecessary files orregistry entries would remain on the computer system. These will not beused by the software applications that remain after theCreateFinalSubset API is called, and they occupy disk space.

The requirement at this operation of validation is that none of thecomponents are marked to be permanently installed. A Visual Basic scriptexample of the validation is as follows: Database =Installer.OpenDatabase(the MSI installation package) View =Database.OpenView (‘Select Attributes from Component’) View.Execute DoAttributeRecord = View.Fetch AttributeValue =AttributeRecord.IntegerData(1) If AttributeValue and 0x0010 is non-zero,the component is permanent Loop until AttributeRecord entries areprocessed for each component.

At decision block 1420 (operation v5)—Custom Actions are custom codethat the author of the installation package has added to be run duringthe install or uninstall of the application. This custom code can breakvalidation because it can violate the rules that prove that theinstallation package does not conflict with other applications in thesuperset. As an example, the custom code in a custom action can create aCOM registration entry or cause the computer to reboot. The requirementfor validation at this operation is that the installation packagecontains no custom actions. Database = Installer.OpenDatabase(the MSIinstallation package) View = Database.OpenView (‘ Select Action fromCustomAction’) View.Execute CaData = View.Fetch If CaData is not Nothingthere are custom actions

In some embodiments, an additional next stage of validation isperformed, which includes: Checking the candidate MSI against the othersalready in the superset: Check that the productcode is not in theexisting metadata, Check that the upgradecode is not in the existingmetadata, Check Service names, Check Environment variables, and CheckFile extensions; and Checking that the uninstall completely removes whatis installed.

Security Issues

There are a number of security issues related to thedigital-content-distribution system described herein. One has alreadybeen addressed, namely, that of protected selection and customization ofthe panoplex to prevent the user from accessing non-selected contentwithout proper authorization. Another is the issue of secure, yet quickerasure of content from a digital-storage medium. A third, describedbelow, is detection of stolen panoplexes.

Fast, secure erasure seeks a middle ground between ordinary erasure andhigh-security erasure. Ordinary erasure leaves enough of deleted filesbehind for reconstruction of such deleted files in a process generallyreferred to as “undeleting.” An unsecure erasure is an undesirablecircumstance, since a user could simply not select certain valuablecontent and thereafter “undelete” the erased valuable content.Defragmentation can defeat simple undelete/unerase programs but isrelatively time-consuming. Some high-security erasure techniquestypically involve several iterations of writing randomly selected bitvalues over the previously stored substantive data and metadata toprevent even close examination of magnetic patterns on the surface ofthe storage medium from revealing the data previously stored on themedium. These multiple iterations are much more time-consuming thaneither simple erasure or defragmentation.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an erasure mechanismthat is more expensive to defeat than the cost of the erased content.The cost of a conventional undeletion of a conventionally deleted filecan be trivial. Accordingly, a more-secure mechanism should be used. Thecost of defeating high-security erasure could be many times greater thanthe value of the erased panoplex content, but the use of high-securityerasure exacts a toll on the manufacturer or retailer in terms ofthroughput (e.g., machines per hour) of the customization process.Accordingly, a more efficient erasure mechanism is needed.

In some embodiments, removal of extraneous content of the panoplex usesa secure, quick erase that overwrites file directory information thatwould otherwise allow file reconstruction. Such directory informationincludes any file-in-use flag, file length, file-folder location, andcluster-allocation pointers. Such an erasure foils normal undeleteprograms and makes any attempt to reconstruct the content more costlythan the cost of acquiring the content.

In one embodiment, if the file system of the panoplex is a FAT (FileAllocation Table) file system, secure, quick erasure includes making thefollowing modifications to the file as represented in the file systemdirectory structure: (i) marking (changing to a predetermined value) thefirst byte of the file name, (ii) zeroing data representing the filesize, (iii) traversing FAT cluster entries and zeroing all clusterentries traversed, and (iv) zeroing the address of the first FATcluster. In another embodiment, if the file system of the panoplex is anNTFS (New Technology File System) file system, secure, quick erasureincludes making the following modifications to the file as representedin the file system directory structure: (i) zeroing the erase flag ofthe file, (ii) zeroing data representing the file size, (iii) zeroingall data attributes of the file, and (iv) zeroing the $Bitmap clustersof the file. Other embodiments are possible for other processingenvironments and other file systems, for example mainframe computing.Secure, quick erasure destroys data used in currently used undeletemechanisms and is far more time efficient than the high-security erasuremechanisms.

This secure, quick erasure can be implemented as a stand-alone module, afilter driver, or a patch to the conventional erasure routine includedin the operating system of the panoplex. If the secure, quick erasure isimplemented as a stand-alone module or as a filter driver, therespective installation and, more importantly, removal scripts of thevarious pieces of content of the panoplex are modified to use thesecure, quick erasure mechanism rather than the conventional,recoverable erasure mechanism. If the secure, quick erasure isimplemented by a patch to, i.e., modification of, the conventionalerasure routine, it is preferred that the patch is removed followingcomplete customization of the panoplex such that conventional,recoverable erasure is restored and the user's experience thereafter isconventional and as expected.

To detect stolen or otherwise unauthorized use of a panoplex, panoplexesare surreptitiously identified as such. In one embodiment, superfluouscontent is included in the panoplex and is never removed duringcustomization of the panoplex, regardless of the selections made by theuser. Such superfluous content is preferably disguised as requiredcontent such that the casual copyist would leave the superfluous contentin place for fear of damaging the proper functioning of the panoplex.For example, the superfluous content can be disguised as a DLL and theregistry can be modified to indicate that the DLL is required for atleast one module of the operating system to prevent removal of the DLL.Another method is to create an unremovable, dummy or stub program foreach panoplex, whose MSI table contents log the panoplex creation andsoftware program removal from that panoplex. In some embodiments, maskedidentification elements are termed taggants.

In another embodiment, percepta, e.g., sound files, images, motionvideo, etc., are watermarked using a particularly efficient watermarkingmechanism such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,094 by EarlLevine entitled “Robust Watermark Method and Apparatus for DigitalSignals.” To identify the panoplex as such, percepta that are requiredby the operating system and/or valuable to one or more applicationslikely to be selected by the user are watermarked in this manner.Examples include computer desktop wallpapers, sounds played by theoperating system on occurrence of system events such as startup orshutdown, and clipart used by popular office suites. In a panoplexwithout an operating system, e.g., a hard drive used in a digital musicplayer, a substantial portion, if not all, of the soft content(typically digital music files) is watermarked.

Additional Ramifications

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method forprocessing a first storage medium having a prewritten plurality ofinstalled soft assets. The method includes obtaining selection data, andautomatically modifying the first storage medium based on the selectiondata such that, in place of those assets not relevant to the selectedassets, erased space becomes available for storage of other data, andselected assets are available as installed. In some embodiments, theinstalled assets are unavailable to the user unless and until themodifying operation is run (in contrast to a conventional system thatmight allow a user to delete multiple files after selecting those files,in which case those files would have been available to the user beforethe delete operation, and would have remained available if the deleteoperation were not to be performed). Some embodiments further includewriting, to the first storage medium, data that includes the pluralityof installed soft assets.

In some embodiments, the providing of the first storage medium havingthe prewritten plurality of installed soft assets includes providing thefirst storage medium, providing a second storage medium, installing aplurality of soft assets to the second storage medium, and writing, tothe first storage medium, data from the second storage medium thatincludes the plurality of installed soft assets.

Some embodiments include operatively coupling the first storage mediumto a device that has not been used by an end user in order that thedevice after the modifying operation is in an immediately useable state.

Some embodiments include charging a monetary amount to an account (e.g.,at that time, deducting an amount from a bank account, debiting a debitaccount, or charging to a credit-card account) based on the selectedcontent. Some embodiments include invoicing (e.g., creating an invoicethat is sent to a user and that requests payment in the future) amonetary amount based on the selected content.

In some embodiments, the modifying of the first storage medium furtherincludes reading directory information from an operating-systemdirectory location, modifying the directory information, and writing themodified directory information to the operating-system directorylocation.

In some embodiments, the modifying of the first storage medium furtherincludes reading directory information from a location on the storagemedium other than an operating-system directory location, modifying thedirectory information, and writing the modified directory information tothe operating-system directory location.

In some embodiments, the modifying of the first storage medium furtherincludes reading directory information from a location other that thestorage medium, modifying the directory information, and writing themodified directory information to an operating-system directory locationon the storage medium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a computer-readable first storage medium having a prewrittenplurality of installed soft assets, and instructions stored thereon forcausing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a methodincluding obtaining selection data, and modifying the storage mediumbased on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets,erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selectedassets are available as installed. Some embodiments further include acomputer-run device operatively coupled to the first storage medium andconfigured to execute instructions obtained from the first storagemedium and to write, to the first storage medium, data that modifies theplurality of installed soft assets based on the selection data. In someembodiments, the instructions stored on the first storage medium furthercause the method to include charging a monetary amount based on theselected content.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an interface configured to connect to a first storage mediumhaving a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets, means forobtaining selection data, and means, coupled to the interface, formodifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, inplace of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storageof other data, and selected assets are available as installed. Someembodiments further include means for writing, to the first storagemedium, data that includes the plurality of installed soft assets.

Some embodiments further include means for installing a plurality ofsoft assets to a second storage medium, and means for writing, to thefirst storage medium, data from the second storage medium that includesthe plurality of installed soft assets. Some embodiments further includea device that has not been used by an end user, and means foroperatively coupling the first storage medium to the device in orderthat the device, after operation of the means for modifying, is in animmediately useable state. Some embodiments further include means forcharging a monetary amount based on the selected content.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an interface configured to connect to a storage medium having aprewritten first set of installed soft assets, an input deviceconfigured to receive selection data, and a grypher coupled to theinterface and the input device, wherein the grypher is configured tocontrol the interface in order to modify the storage medium based on theselection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased spacebecomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets areavailable as installed.

Some embodiments further include a storage-medium writer having thefirst set of installed soft assets stored thereon and operable to writesubstantially simultaneously to the first storage medium and to at leastone other storage medium, substantially identical data that includes thefirst set of installed soft assets.

Some embodiments further include a storage-medium writer having thefirst set of installed soft assets and a second set of installed softassets stored thereon and operable to write substantially simultaneouslyto the first storage medium and to at least one other storage medium,substantially identical data that includes the first set of installedsoft assets, and to write substantially simultaneously to a plurality ofother storage medium, substantially identical data that includes thesecond set of installed soft assets.

Some embodiments further include a mechanism that operatively couplesthe first storage medium to a device that has not been used by an enduser in order that the device after operation of the grypher is in animmediately useable state.

Some embodiments further include a mechanism that charges a monetaryamount based on the selected content.

Panoplex

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an end-user storage medium having a prewritten panoplex storedthereon that includes a plurality of installed soft assets, wherein thestorage medium is configured to be gryphed before first availability ofthe plurality of installed soft assets, in order to retain an ipselectathat includes a first subset of the plurality of installed soft assetsand to erase a relicta that includes a second subset of the plurality ofinstalled soft assets such that only the first subset are available asinstalled on the end-user storage medium, and storage space from thesecond subset is available for storage of other data.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program

In some embodiments, the storage medium further includes instructionsstored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processorto execute a method that includes obtaining selection data, andmodifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that, inplace of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storageof other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program and Charging Mechanism A

In some embodiments, the storage medium further includes instructionsstored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processorto execute a method that includes obtaining selection data, modifyingthe storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place ofnon-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed, and reporting astatus of the modifying operation to a central facility in order tocharge a specified account.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk-Drive Storage Medium

In some embodiments, the storage medium is a disk drive that includes anenclosure, a disk-drive processor mounted to (or affixed to) theenclosure (either directly or indirectly, such as by attaching to acircuit board that is attached to the enclosure or to one or more otherthings that is/are attached to the enclosure), an external-deviceinterface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to acceptdata-transfer requests from an external device, and to send data to andreceive data from the external device, and at least one rotating diskhoused in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, andhaving stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing thedisk-drive processor to execute a method that includes obtainingselection data, and modifying the storage medium based on the selectiondata such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomesavailable for storage of other data, and selected assets are availableas installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk-Drive Storage MediumConnected to, for Example, iPod

Some embodiments further include an external device operatively coupledto the storage medium, the external device operable to transmitdata-transfer requests to the storage medium, and to send data to andreceive data from the storage medium, wherein the storage medium is adisk drive that includes an enclosure, a disk-drive processor mounted tothe enclosure, an external-device interface operatively coupled to theprocessor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from theexternal device, and to send data to and receive data from the externaldevice, at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure, operativelycoupled to the processor, and having stored thereon the panoplex andinstructions for causing the processor to execute a method that includesobtaining selection data, and modifying the storage medium based on theselection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased spacebecomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets areavailable as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium

In some embodiments, the storage medium is or includes a solid-statedrive that includes an enclosure, a solid-state-drive processor mountedto the enclosure, an external-device interface operatively coupled tothe processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to senddata to and receive data from an external device, at least onesolid-state memory (e.g., comprising one or more integrated-circuitchips) housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor,and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing theprocessor to execute a method that includes obtaining selection data,and modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that,in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available forstorage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium Connected to,for Example, iPod

Some embodiments further include an external device operatively coupledto the storage medium, the external device operable to transmitdata-transfer requests to the storage medium, and to send data to andreceive data from the storage medium, wherein the storage medium is asolid-state drive that includes an enclosure, a solid-state-driveprocessor mounted to the enclosure, an external-device interfaceoperatively coupled to the processor and operable to acceptdata-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from anexternal device, and at least one solid-state memory housed in theenclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having storedthereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor toexecute a method that includes obtaining selection data, and modifyingthe storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place ofnon-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed.

Terse Panoplex

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an article ofmanufacture that includes an intransient signal carrier having a datastructure offering a selection of soft assets responsive to reduction.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program With Reporting

In some embodiments of the article of manufacture, the storage mediumfurther includes instructions stored thereon for causing a suitablyprogrammed information processor to execute a method that includesobtaining selection data, modifying the storage medium based on theselection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased spacebecomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets areavailable as installed, and reporting a status of the modifyingoperation to a central facility.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program and Charging Mechanism B

In some embodiments of the article of manufacture, the storage mediumfurther includes instructions stored thereon for causing a suitablyprogrammed information processor to execute a method that includesobtaining selection data, modifying the storage medium based on theselection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased spacebecomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets areavailable as installed, and charging a specified account an amount basedon the selected assets are available as installed after the modifyingoperation.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk-Drive Storage Medium

In some embodiments of the article of manufacture, the storage medium isa disk drive that includes an enclosure, a disk-drive processor mountedto the enclosure, an external-device interface operatively coupled tothe processor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to senddata to and receive data from an external device, and at least onerotating disk housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to theprocessor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions forcausing the disk-drive processor to execute a method that includesobtaining selection data, and modifying the storage medium based on theselection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased spacebecomes available for storage of other data, and selected assets areavailable as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk Storage Medium Connected to,for Example, an iPod®

Some embodiments of the article of manufacture further include anexternal device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the externaldevice operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storage mediumand to send data to and receive data from the storage medium, whereinthe storage medium is a disk drive that includes an enclosure, adisk-drive processor mounted to the enclosure, an external-deviceinterface operatively coupled to the processor and operable to acceptdata-transfer requests from the external device, and to send data to andreceive data from the external device, and at least one rotating diskhoused in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, andhaving stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing theprocessor to execute a method that includes obtaining selection data,and modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that,in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available forstorage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium

In some embodiments of the article of manufacture, the storage medium isa solid-state drive that includes an enclosure, a solid-state-driveprocessor mounted to the enclosure, an external-device interfaceoperatively coupled to the processor and operable to acceptdata-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from anexternal device, at least one solid-state memory housed in theenclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having storedthereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor toexecute a method that includes obtaining selection data, and modifyingthe storage medium based on the selection data such that, in place ofnon-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium Connected to,for Example, an iPod

Some embodiments of the article of manufacture further include anexternal device operatively coupled to the storage medium, the externaldevice operable to transmit data-transfer requests to the storagemedium, and to send data to and receive data from the storage medium,wherein the storage medium is a solid-state drive that includes anenclosure, a solid-state-drive processor mounted to the enclosure, anexternal-device interface operatively coupled to the processor andoperable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to andreceive data from an external device, and at least one solid-statememory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor,and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing theprocessor to execute a method that includes obtaining selection data,and modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that,in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available forstorage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

Terse Means-Plus-Function Panoplex

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an intransient signal carrier having a data structure offeringa plurality of selectable soft assets and means for subtractiveinstallation of selected unwanted assets to leave a customized set ofinstalled assets.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program That Asks User for Selection

In some embodiments, the storage medium further includes instructionsstored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processorto execute a method that includes presenting pricing informationrelevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets, eliciting andreceiving from a user an indication of selection data, and modifying thestorage medium based on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplec With Gryphing Program and Charging Mechanism C

In some embodiments, the storage medium further includes instructionsstored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processorto execute a method that includes presenting pricing informationrelevant to the plurality of selectable soft assets, eliciting andreceiving from a user an indication of selection data, modifying thestorage medium based on the selection data such that, in place ofnon-selected assets, erased space becomes available for storage of otherdata, and selected assets are available as installed, and charging aspecified account an amount that is based on the selection data.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk-Drive Storage Medium

In some embodiments, the storage medium is a disk drive that includes anenclosure, a disk-drive processor mounted to the enclosure, anexternal-device interface operatively coupled to the processor andoperable to accept data-transfer requests and to send data to andreceive data from an external device, at least one rotating disk housedin the enclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and havingstored thereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the disk-driveprocessor to execute a method that includes obtaining selection data,and modifying the storage medium based on the selection data such that,in place of non- selected assets, erased space becomes available forstorage of other data, and selected assets are available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Disk-Drive Storage MediumConnected to, for Example, an iPod

Some embodiments further include an external device operatively coupledto the storage medium, the external device operable to transmitdata-transfer requests to the storage medium, and to send data to andreceive data from the storage medium, wherein the storage medium is adisk drive that includes an enclosure, a disk-drive processor mounted tothe enclosure, an external-device interface operatively coupled to theprocessor and operable to accept data-transfer requests from theexternal device, and to send data to and receive data from the externaldevice, and at least one rotating disk housed in the enclosure,operatively coupled to the processor, and having stored thereon thepanoplex and instructions for causing the processor to execute a methodthat includes presenting pricing information relevant to the pluralityof selectable soft assets, eliciting and receiving from a user anindication of selection data, and modifying the storage medium based onthe selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets, erasedspace becomes available for storage of other data, and selected assetsare available as installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium

In some embodiments, the storage medium is a solid-state drive thatincludes an enclosure, a solid-state-drive processor mounted to theenclosure, an external-device interface operatively coupled to theprocessor and operable to accept data-transfer requests and to send datato and receive data from an external device, and at least onesolid-state memory housed in the enclosure, operatively coupled to theprocessor, and having stored thereon the panoplex and instructions forcausing the processor to execute a method that includes obtainingselection data, and modifying the storage medium based on the selectiondata such that, in place of non-selected assets, erased space becomesavailable for storage of other data, and selected assets are availableas installed.

Panoplex With Gryphing Program Inside Flash Storage Medium Connected to,for Example, an iPod

Some embodiments further include an external device operatively coupledto the storage medium, the external device operable to transmitdata-transfer requests to the storage medium and to send data to andreceive data from the storage medium, wherein the storage medium is asolid-state drive that includes an enclosure, a solid-state-driveprocessor mounted to the enclosure, an external-device interfaceoperatively coupled to the processor and operable to acceptdata-transfer requests and to send data to and receive data from anexternal device, at least one solid-state memory housed in theenclosure, operatively coupled to the processor, and having storedthereon the panoplex and instructions for causing the processor toexecute a method that includes presenting pricing information relevantto the plurality of selectable soft assets, eliciting and receiving froma user an indication of selection data, and modifying the storage mediumbased on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets,erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selectedassets are available as installed.

Further Ramifications

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing a storage mediumhaving a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets, obtainingselection data indicative of a chosen set of soft assets, andautomatically modifying the storage medium based on the selection datasuch that substantially all non-chosen assets are removed and only thechosen assets are available and installed to an appropriate hardwaredevice, and wherein the plurality of installed soft assets areunavailable to the user before the modifying operation is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing a plurality ofinstalled soft assets, and automatically modifying the installed softassets based on selection data such that substantially all non-chosenassets are culled, and wherein the plurality of installed soft assetsare unavailable to the user unless and until the modifying operation isperformed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes instantiating a panoplexcontaining a plurality of soft assets within a storage device,differentiating an ipselecta of authorized soft assets from a relicta ofunauthorized soft assets, and automatically removing the unauthorizedsoft assets from the panoplex such that the storage device contains onlythe authorized assets, and the authorized assets are substantiallyavailable without further network or media data loading andinstallation, and wherein the plurality of installed soft assets areunavailable to the user before the modifying operation is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes cloning a panoplex containinga plurality of soft assets onto a storage device, obtainingcustomer-specific selection data differentiating an ipselecta ofauthorized soft assets from a relicta having a plurality of unauthorizedsoft assets, and automatically culling the plurality of unauthorizedsoft assets from the panoplex such that the storage device contains onlythe plurality of authorized assets, plus storage space is available inplace of the unauthorized assets, and wherein the plurality of softassets is unavailable to the user before the culling operation isperformed.

In some embodiments, the modifying/removing/culling is performed using adelivered device that will finally utilize the storage medium. In someembodiments, the modifying/removing/culling is performed using a programexecuted by a delivered device via a remote-activation process conductedacross a network. In some embodiments, the modifying/removing/culling isperformed when the storage medium is not connected to a delivered devicethat will finally utilize the storage medium. Some embodiments furtherinclude transferring the gryphed data to a final storage medium thatwill be utilized by a delivered device. In some embodiments, at least aportion of the panoplex is initially in a concealed storage region.

Some embodiments further include transferring insignating user-specificdata onto the storage medium. Some embodiments further includetransferring cleaning a registry of data relating to the unauthorizedsoft assets. Some embodiments further include transferring defragmentingthe storage medium. Some embodiments further include transferringcreating a removal log. Some embodiments further include transferringprocessing the storage medium such that all authorized assets areimmediately usable without further user interaction. Some embodimentsfurther include transferring installing additional soft assets after themodifying/removing/culling is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a computer-readable storage medium having instructions storedthereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor toexecute a method that includes cloning a panoplex containing a pluralityof soft assets onto a storage device, obtaining customer-specificselection data differentiating an ipselecta of authorized soft assetsfrom a relicta of unauthorized soft assets, and culling the unauthorizedsoft assets from the panoplex such that the storage device contains onlythe authorized assets and storage space is available in place of theunauthorized assets, and wherein the plurality of soft assets isunavailable to the user before the culling operation is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an interface configured to connect to a storage medium having aprewritten plurality of installed soft assets, means for cloning apanoplex containing a plurality of soft assets onto a storage device,obtaining customer-specific selection data differentiating an ipselectaof authorized soft assets from a relicta of unauthorized soft assets,and means for culling the unauthorized soft assets from the panoplexsuch that the storage device contains only the authorized assets andstorage space is available in place of the unauthorized assets, andwherein the plurality of soft assets is unavailable to the user beforethe culling operation is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an interface configured to connect to a storage medium having aprewritten plurality of installed soft assets, an input deviceconfigured to receive selection data, and an information processorcoupled to the interface and the input device, wherein the informationprocessor is configured to cull the unauthorized soft assets from thepanoplex such that the storage device contains only the authorizedassets and storage space is available in place of the unauthorizedassets, and wherein the plurality of soft assets is unavailable to theuser before the culling operation is performed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a computer-readable storage medium having a data structurestored thereon configured to require removal of unauthorized assets fromthe storage medium before other use of a plurality of authorized assetsfrom the storage medium. Some embodiments further include aself-describing manifest stored on the storage medium. Some embodimentsfurther include instructions stored on the storage medium for causing asuitably programmed information processor to execute a method thatincludes: obtaining selection data, and modifying the storage mediumbased on the selection data such that, in place of non-selected assets,erased space becomes available for storage of other data, and selectedassets are available as authorized and installed. Some embodimentsfurther include information useful for creating a directory of softassets stored on the storage medium. Some embodiments further includeinformation useful for creating a registry of installed programs storedon the storage medium. Some embodiments further include data specifyingan order for uninstalling programs stored on the storage medium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a computer-readable storage medium having a data structurestored thereon containing an assemblage of operational soft assetsindividually chosen from a superset of such assets, wherein the assetswere replicated from a superset of such assets and assets not chosenwere erased from the storage medium. Some embodiments further include alog of assets that were erased. In some embodiments, the storage mediumwas defragmented after the assets not chosen were erased. Someembodiments further include obscured taggant data that maintains apermanent record of panoplex creation and gryphing removal of relicta.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes apparatus (e.g., a software sales establishment) that includesa managed set of one or more digital master panoplex images, eachholding a set of soft assets, a duplication facility coupled to themanaged set and operable to transfer an instance of a selected masterpanoplex image onto a storage device, a data interface eliciting andreceiving selection data for a customized subset of soft assets in theselected master panoplex image, a gryphing engine operable toselectively remove certain assets from the storage medium based on theselection data, and a charging mechanism operable to charge a selectedaccount an amount of money based on the selection data, and to authorizedelivery of a device that uses the soft assets available on the storagemedium to a consumer.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes obtaining selection data, andmodifying a storage medium having a prewritten plurality of installedsoft assets based on the selection data such that substantially allnon-selected assets are erased.

In some embodiments, the modifying of the storage medium includeserasing a plurality of data positions without supplying write data forany of the plurality of data positions. In some embodiments, themodifying of the storage medium includes erasing a plurality of datapositions without supplying write data for all of the plurality of datapositions. In some embodiments, the modifying of the storage mediumincludes erasing a plurality of data positions by supplying write datafor all of the plurality of data positions.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a computer-readable storage medium having instructions storedthereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor toexecute a method that includes: obtaining selection data, and modifyinga storage medium having a prewritten plurality of installed soft assetsbased on the selection data such that substantially all non-selectedassets are erased.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes an interface configured to connect to a storage medium having aprewritten plurality of installed soft assets, means for obtainingselection data, and means, coupled to the interface, for erasingsubstantially all non-selected assets from the storage medium based onthe selection data. In some embodiments, the present invention providesan apparatus that includes an interface configured to connect to astorage medium having a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets,an input device configured to receive selection data, and a gryphercoupled to the interface and the input device, wherein the grypher isconfigured to control the interface in order to erase substantially allnon-selected assets from the storage medium based on the selection data.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing a computer-readablemaster storage medium having a plurality of panoplexes stored thereonincluding a first panoplex that includes a first plurality of installedsoft assets and a second panoplex that includes a different secondplurality of installed soft assets, providing a first computer-readableand computer-writable end-user storage medium, obtaining data thatspecifies a first selected one of the plurality of panoplexes, andwriting the first selected panoplex to the first end-user storagemedium.

Some embodiments further include creating the first panoplex byinstalling the first plurality of soft assets. Some embodiments furtherinclude uninstalling a set of unselected soft assets from the firstselected panoplex before writing the first selected panoplex to thefirst end-user storage medium. Some embodiments further includeuninstalling a set of unselected soft assets from the first selectedpanoplex after writing the first selected panoplex to the first end-userstorage medium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes generating a panoplex thatincludes a universe of separately selectable installed soft assets,copying the panoplex to each one of a plurality of computer-readable andcomputer-writable end-user storage media, obtaining selection data thatdistinguishes ipselecta (a first subset of the plurality of installedsoft assets that are to be retained) from relicta (a second subset ofthe plurality of installed soft assets that are not to be retained),gryphing a selected first end-user storage medium (erasing and/oruninstalling the relicta from the end-user storage medium as specifiedon the selection data), and delivering the gryphed end-user storagemedium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method for producing a computer-readable andcomputer-writable storage medium having a selected plurality ofinstalled soft assets, wherein the method includes providing acomputer-readable and computer-writable end-user storage medium having aprewritten panoplex that includes a plurality of installed soft assets,obtaining data that distinguishes a first subset of the plurality ofinstalled soft assets that are to be retained from a second subset ofthe plurality of installed soft assets that are not to be retained, anderasing the second subset from the end-user storage medium such that thesecond subset are erased and the first subset are available as installedon the end-user storage medium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing a computer-readableand computer-writable end-user storage medium having a prewritten firstpanoplex that includes a first plurality of installed soft assets,obtaining data that distinguishes an ipselecta of the first panoplexfrom a relicta, and writing data to the end-user storage medium suchthat the relicta are erased and the ipselecta are available asinstalled.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing an intransientsignal carrier having a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets,obtaining selection data, and modifying the intransient signal carrierbased on the selection data such that erased space is available in placeof non-selected assets and selected assets are available as installed.

In some embodiments, the intransient signal carrier includes a rotatingstorage medium. In some embodiments, the intransient signal carrierincludes a magnetic disk storage system. In some embodiments, theintransient signal carrier includes an electrically erasable solid-statememory. In some embodiments, the modifying of the intransient signalcarrier includes erasing one or more blocks of data containing at leastsome of the non-selected assets.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides acomputer-implemented method that includes providing a storage mediumhaving a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets, obtainingselection data, and modifying the storage medium based on the selectiondata such that erased space becomes available for storage of other datain place of non-selected assets and selected assets are available asinstalled. In some embodiments, the modifying of the storage mediumincludes erasing one or more blocks of data containing at least some ofthe non-selected assets.

In some embodiments, storage space of the erased second subsetbecomes/is available for storage of other data. In some embodiments, thepanoplex further includes a first data structure havingdigital-asset-identification information and location informationconfigured to facilitate erasure of the relicta. In some embodiments,the panoplex further includes a directory data structure. In someembodiments, the first data structure is a directory. In someembodiments, the first data structure is a registry. In someembodiments, the first data structure includes data indicating an orderin which the soft assets were installed. In some embodiments, the firstdata structure includes data indicating an order in which relicta of thesoft assets are to be removed, erased and/or uninstalled.

In some embodiments, the providing of the medium further includesconnecting a first installation storage medium to a computer, installingthe first plurality of installed soft assets onto the first installationstorage medium to create the first panoplex, copying the first panoplexto the first end-user storage medium.

In some embodiments, the copying of the first panoplex to the firstend-user storage medium further includes copying the first panoplex fromthe first installation storage medium to a master storage medium havingat least one other panoplex stored thereon, and copying the firstpanoplex from the master storage medium to the first end-user storagemedium.

In some embodiments, the first panoplex further includes a directorydata structure having identification information and locationinformation of the plurality of installed soft assets, a registry datastructure having operational information necessary to run a plurality ofcomputer programs contained within the plurality of installed softassets, and a gryphing-order data structure having informationconcerning an order for removing relicta information from the directorydata structure and the registry data structure.

In some embodiments, the gryphing-order data structure is formed usingan order of installation of the plurality of installed soft assets. Someembodiments further include reading directory information from theend-user storage medium, modifying the directory information to eraserelicta, and writing the modified directory information to a directoryarea on the end-user storage medium. Some embodiments further includereading registry information from the end-user storage medium, modifyingthe registry information to uninstall relicta, writing the modifiedregistry information to a registry area on the end-user storage medium.

Some embodiments further include reading directory information from astorage medium other than the end-user storage medium, modifying thedirectory information to erase relicta, writing the modified directoryinformation to a directory area on the end-user storage medium. Someembodiments further include reading registry information from a storagemedium other than the end-user storage medium, modifying the registryinformation to uninstall relicta, writing the modified registryinformation to a registry area on the end-user storage medium.

Some embodiments further include defragmenting at least a portion of theipselecta. In some embodiments, the writing of data to the end-userstorage medium includes writing identification information and locationinformation of the ipselecta assets to a directory data structure on theend-user storage medium. In some embodiments, the writing of data to theend-user storage medium includes writing data that replaces at least aportion of each of a plurality of the relicta assets (in order tofurther disable usability of those assets/ to provide evidence thatthose assets were relicta). In some embodiments, the writing of data tothe end-user storage medium includes writing data that replaces at leasta portion of each of a plurality of the ipselecta assets (in order toenable those assets).

In some embodiments, the writing of data to the end-user storage mediumincludes writing data to a directory data structure havingidentification information and location information of the ipselectaassets, and writing data to a registry data structure having operationalinformation necessary to run a plurality of computer programs containedwithin the ipselecta assets. In some embodiments, the writing of data tothe end-user storage medium includes writing identification informationand location information of the ipselecta assets to a directory datastructure, and writing operational information necessary to run aplurality of computer programs contained within the ipselecta assets toa registry data structure.

In some embodiments, the writing of data to the end-user storage mediumincludes writing data to a directory data structure to removeidentification information and location information of the relictaassets, and writing data to a registry data structure to removeoperational information useful to run a plurality of computer programscontained within the relicta assets.

In some embodiments, the writing of data to the end-user storage mediumincludes writing data to a directory data structure to removeidentification information and location information of the relictaassets, and writing data to a registry data structure to removeoperational information useful to run a plurality of computer programscontained within the relicta assets. In some embodiments, the ipselectaincludes a plurality of available installed computer programs. In someembodiments, the ipselecta includes a plurality of available audioassets. In some embodiments, the ipselecta includes a plurality ofavailable video programs. In some embodiments, the ipselecta includes aplurality of available installed computer games. In some embodiments,the ipselecta includes a plurality of available multimedia assets. Insome embodiments, the ipselecta includes a plurality of availabledatabase assets.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computer-readableand computer-writable end-user storage medium having a prewrittenpanoplex that includes a plurality of installed soft assets and that isconfigured to be gryphed in order to retain an ipselecta that includes afirst subset of the plurality of installed soft assets and to erase arelicta that includes a second subset of the plurality of installed softassets such that only the first subset are available as installed on theend-user storage medium, and storage space from the second subset isavailable as blank/erased/available for storage and/or not used forstorage.

In some embodiments, the panoplex further includes a directory datastructure having location information of the plurality of installed softassets. In some embodiments, the panoplex further includes a registrydata structure having operational information necessary to run aplurality of computer programs contained within the plurality ofinstalled soft assets. In some embodiments, the panoplex furtherincludes a gryphing-order data structure having information concerningan order for removing relicta information from the directory datastructure and the registry data structure.

In some embodiments, the panoplex further includes a directory datastructure having identification information and location information ofthe plurality of installed soft assets, a registry data structure havingoperational information necessary to run a plurality of computerprograms contained within the plurality of installed soft assets, and agryphing-order data structure having information concerning an order forremoving relicta information from the directory data structure and theregistry data structure. Some embodiments further include asubstantially blank directory that does not provide data for identifyingor locating the plurality of installed soft assets, such that theend-user medium is usable as a substantially blank storage medium.

Some embodiments further include a substantially blank directory thatdoes not provide data for identifying or locating the plurality ofinstalled soft assets, such that the end-user medium is usable as asubstantially blank storage medium, and a data structure having datatherein for creating a directory of ipselecta assets. In someembodiments, the panoplex includes a plurality of installed computerprograms. In some embodiments, the panoplex includes a plurality ofaudio assets. In some embodiments, the panoplex includes a plurality ofvideo programs. In some embodiments, the panoplex includes a pluralityof installed computer games. In some embodiments, the panoplex includesa plurality of multimedia assets. In some embodiments, the panoplexincludes a plurality of database assets.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method thatincludes providing a computer-readable master storage medium having aplurality of panoplexes stored thereon including a first panoplex thatincludes a first plurality of installed soft assets and a secondpanoplex that includes a different second plurality of installed softassets, providing a first computer-readable and computer-writableend-user storage medium, obtaining data that specifies a first selectedone of the plurality of panoplexes, and writing the first selectedpanoplex to the first end-user storage medium.

Some embodiments further include providing a second computer-readableand computer-writable end-user storage medium, obtaining data thatspecifies a second selected one of the plurality of panoplexes, andwriting the second selected panoplex to the second end-user storagemedium.

In some embodiments, the providing of the master storage medium furtherincludes connecting a first installation storage medium to a computer,installing the plurality of installed soft assets onto the firstinstallation storage medium to create the first panoplex, copying thefirst panoplex to the first master storage medium.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computer-readableand computer-writable master storage medium having a plurality ofprewritten panoplexes that each includes a plurality of installed softassets, wherein each panoplex is configured to be gryphed in order toretain a first subset of the plurality of installed soft assets and toerase a second subset of the plurality of installed soft assets suchthat only the first subset are available as installed on the end-userstorage medium, and storage space from the second subset is available asblank.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method fordistributing customized content, the method including providing astorage medium having a collection of selectively available contentinstalled therein, receiving selection data that distinguishes a firstportion of the available content that is to be retained from a secondportion of the available content that is to be removed, andautomatically selectively culling the second portion of the selectivelyavailable content from the storage medium based on the selection data.

Some embodiments further include charging a monetary amount for theretained content. Some embodiments further include after culling theextraneous content, coupling the storage medium to a device so as toenable interaction of the device with the retained content.

Some embodiments further include coupling the storage medium to a devicefor subsequent utilization of the storage medium by the device, whereinthe removing availability of the extraneous content is performedsubsequent to the coupling of the storage medium to the device. Someembodiments further include after culling the extraneous content,distributing a device with the storage medium and selected contentportion operative with the device to a user. Some embodiments furtherinclude coupling the storage medium to a device, eliciting and receivingthe selection data by the device with the coupled storage medium, andpreventing use of the collection of available content by a user pendingthe receipt of the selection data.

In some embodiments, control of culling the extraneous content isexercised across a network. In some embodiments, at least a portion ofthe network is wireless. Some embodiments further include incorporatingdata specific to the user into the selected portion of the availablecontent. Some embodiments further include installing additional contentthat was not in the collection of available content previously installedon the storage medium.

In some embodiments, the collection of available content includes datain a registry stored on the storage medium, the removing availabilityfurther includes modifying the registry, and in some embodiments, themethod further includes removal of extraneous data from the registryafter the removing availability and the modifying of the registry.

In some embodiments, the culling of content includes modification ofinformation stored in a registry. In some embodiments, culling includeserasing the extraneous portion of the available content anddefragmenting the storage medium. In some embodiments, culling theextraneous content includes performing a fast secure erasure whereinsubstantially all relevant linkages between the logical content and thephysical content are broken.

In some embodiments, the providing of the storage medium having acollection of available content installed therein further includescreating a master set of installed content, and replicating the masterto the provided storage medium. In some embodiments, the providing ofthe storage medium having a collection of available content installedtherein further includes executing at least one installation scriptassociated with a respective portion of the available content.

In some embodiments, culling further includes executing at least oneremoval script associated with the extraneous portion of the availablecontent. Some embodiments further include, after culling the extraneousportion of the available content, copying the desired portion from thestorage medium to a storage medium coupled to a device. In someembodiments, the device storage medium has insufficient capacity tostore the collection of available content entirely.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a digital-asset dispenser that includes a digital-processingdevice, and a storage medium, having stored therein a predeterminedcollection of soft assets and capable of being operatively coupled tothe digital processing device, such that the digital-processing devicecan process soft assets stored on the storage medium, a collectioncustomizer that is operatively coupled to the storage medium and that isoperable to cull the extraneous portions of the soft assets from thecollection such that a retained portion of the collection of soft assetsthat is specified by a selector is retained within the storage medium inresponse to specific selection by the selector, and a dispensingmechanism to distribute to an end-user the digital processing devicethat includes the storage medium and the specified soft assets storedtherein. In some embodiments, the selector is human. In someembodiments, the selector automatically selects the specified softassets based on one or more characteristics of the end-user. In someembodiments, the one or more characteristics include one or morecharacteristics selected from the group consisting of an organizationalrank, function, location, and language of the end-user.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a functional container that includes a storage medium to whichdata can be written and from which data can be read, and configured toretain the data, and further having an interface operable to couple thestorage medium to a functional device, a file structure mediatinglogical information to and from physical locations within the storagemedium, a collection of individually accessible soft assets stored onthe storage medium, and a manifest describing the soft assets, whereinthe storage medium serves as both an inventory of selectable soft assetsand a vehicle to deliver the selected soft assets. In some embodiments,the storage medium has been culled such that the selected soft assetsare available and the non-selected soft assets are removed. Someembodiments further include a functional electronic device operativelycoupled to the functional container, such that the device is customizedand ready-to-use.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method thatincludes providing a data storage medium having a set of pre-installedassets, and subtracting a plurality of assets in a subset of thepre-installed assets from the storage medium before an initial deliveryto an end user. Some embodiments further include presenting to a user aselection of the pre-installed assets and related pricing information,and eliciting selection indications from the user, wherein thesubtracting of the plurality of assets in the subset is based at leastin part on the selection indications. Some embodiments further includereporting, to a central facility, data that indicate a status of thesubtracting operation. Some embodiments further include charging anaccount based on the reported data.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus thatincludes a new (which is defined as having not been used by an end user)readable and writable digital storage medium device containing aplurality of installed soft assets selected from a set of soft assets,and residual indicia of other soft assets that are in an erased state,wherein the other soft assets are also selected from the set of softassets. In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatusthat includes a dispensing unit having a pre-installed plurality of softassets and including a computer program to transform the assets into afirst subset that is dispensed and a second subset that is notdispensed.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computer-readablemedium having a computer program stored thereon for execution on acomputer to cause the computer to perform subtractive installation bytransforming a plurality of soft assets from their installed state intoan erased state.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method thatincludes based on a user-selection indication, processing a digital datastorage medium to leave on the storage medium a plurality ofsubstantially installed soft assets and an erased space corresponding toa plurality of erased soft assets.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method thatincludes providing a plurality of digital data storage devices, andmass-customizing the devices by transforming a different selection ofsoft assets on each one of the plurality of digital data storage devicesfrom an installed state into an erased state. In some embodiments, themass-customization is performed in one or more manufacturing facilitiesand the devices are shipped to a purchaser of the devices.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computer-readablemedium having a plurality of soft assets in an installed state and acomputer program stored thereon for execution on a computer, to causethe computer to execute a method that includes collectively transformingthe state of a subset of the soft assets to an uninstalled state. Insome embodiments, a plurality of soft assets is selected at one time tobe uninstalled by manufacturing personnel based on a selectiondesignated by a purchase order.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computerinstruction and architecture for a “KEEP” instruction or operation,where a plurality of items is specified, and all other items are erasedupon execution of the KEEP command. In some embodiments, the presentinvention provides an article of manufacture that includes aninformation-processing appliance having a selected set of installedassets available in a substantially ready-to-use state and a residue ofnon-selected assets in an erased state.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a method formodifying a storage medium that includes issuing a keep requestincluding a specification of a plurality of soft assets that are to bekept, and erasing from the storage medium a plurality of soft assets notspecified in the keep request, in response to the issuing of the keeprequest in order to leave as available and installed those soft assetsthat were specified to be kept. In some embodiments of this method, theissuing of the keep request is done using a single call.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a computerarchitecture that includes a keep operation that includes aspecification of a plurality of soft assets that are to be kept, whereinexecution of the keep operation causes a plurality of soft assets notspecified in the keep request to be erased from the storage medium suchthat space corresponding to the erased assets becomes available forstorage of other data, and in order to leave as available and installedthose soft assets that were specified to be kept. In some embodiments ofthis computer architecture, the keep operation is a single call.

In some embodiments, this invention provides methods and facilities: tosafely and/or securely dispense and sell a broad range of soft assets;to erase to install soft assets; to arbitrarily install and removesoftware without engendering system instability; to manufacture theselected software prior to and out of sequence with building the devicein which will operate it; to integrate software installation withinnormal manufacturing cycle times; to unify, what would be otherwisecommodity hardware and software as an immediately functional device; toprovide a new distribution channel economically offering a plethora ofsoft assets without uploading or downloading; to provide dynamicallypriced soft assets; to provide soft assets without taking up space forunused assets; to provide devices that are customized to the needs ofspecific individuals; and the like.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a programmed methodfor erasing selected content, the method including providing a storagemedium, and performing a fast secure erasure of the selected content. Insome embodiments, substantially all relevant linkages between thelogical content and the physical content are broken. In someembodiments, the fast secure erase includes obliterating directorymetadata. In some embodiments, the fast secure erase includesobliterating registry metadata. In some embodiments, the fast secureerase includes both obliterating directory metadata as well asobliterating, through a background-erase, the relicta file-data areas.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides a programmed methodthat includes providing a device having an information processor, andsideloading selected content onto the device.

Some embodiments, in accordance with the present invention, are directedto a programmed method for distributing soft assets integrated within anappropriate device for processing such assets, while providing improveduser convenience. The term “programmed method,” as used herein, isdefined to mean one or more process steps that are presently performed;or, alternatively, one or more process steps that are enabled to beperformed at a future point in time. The term “programmed method” asused herein thus anticipates three alternative forms. First, aprogrammed method includes presently performed process steps. Second, aprogrammed method includes a computer-readable medium embodying computerinstructions, which when executed by a computer performs one or moreprocess steps. Finally, a programmed method includes a computer systemthat has been programmed by software, hardware, firmware, or anycombination thereof, to perform one or more process steps. It is to beunderstood that the term “programmed method” is not to be construed assimultaneously having more than one alternative form, but rather is tobe construed in the truest sense of an alternative form wherein, at anygiven point in time, only one of the plurality of alternative forms ispresent.

It will be understood that the above description of a method andapparatus for selectively dispensing digital content has been withrespect to particular embodiments of the invention. While thisdescription is fully capable of attaining the objects of the invention,it is understood that the same is merely representative of the broadscope of the invention envisioned, and that numerous variations of theabove embodiments may be known or may become known or are obvious or maybecome obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, and these variationsare fully within the broad scope of the invention. For example, whilecertain storage technologies have been described herein, other suchstorage technologies with appropriate file systems may also be employed.Furthermore, while various types of digital devices have been mentioned,numerous other types may also be used in the embodiments of theinvention, including general-purpose computers, special-purposecomputers, embedded computers, enterprise computers, servers,percepters, appliances, machinery, vehicles, weapons, and so on.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Moreover, it is not necessary for adevice or method to address each and every problem sought to be solvedby the present invention, for it to be encompassed by the presentclaims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in thepresent invention is intended to be dedicated to the public regardlessof whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recitedin the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under theprovisions of 35 U.S.C. §112 paragraph 6 unless the element is expresslyrecited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim,the element is expressly recited as a “step” instead of an “act.”

Although numerous characteristics and advantages of various embodimentsas described herein have been set forth in the foregoing description,together with details of the structure and function of variousembodiments, many other embodiments and changes to details will beapparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the abovedescription. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determinedwith reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope ofequivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims,the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-Englishequivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,”respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc.,are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numericalrequirements on their objects.

1. A computer-implemented method for distributing ready-to-use softassets in an end-user device, the method comprising: producing aprewritten superset of ready-to-use, pre-loaded, but obscured softassets on an intransient signal carrier, wherein the prewritten supersetincludes a plurality of pre-loaded soft assets in an obscured state;subsequently displaying a set of choices of the pre-loaded soft assetsfrom which a customized first subset of the installed soft assets thatare to be retained are chosen, and wherein the set of choices from whicha customer can arbitrarily choose includes substantially all thosepre-loaded soft assets that are contained in the superset of prewrittenpre-loaded soft assets already on the intransient signal carrier;subsequently receiving selection data provided by the customer thatdistinguishes the first subset of the pre-loaded soft assets that are tobe retained from a second subset of the pre-loaded soft assets that arenot to be retained; and automatically modifying the intransient signalcarrier based on the selection data, wherein the modifying includes:automatically culling the second subset such that erased space isavailable in place of the second subset of installed soft assets thatare not to be retained, and unobscuring the first subset of soft assetsthat are to be retained so the first subset of soft assets are availableon the intransient signal carrier to an end user as installed andsubstantially ready-to-use.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theintransient signal carrier includes a rotating storage medium.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the intransient signal carrier includes amagnetic disk storage system.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein theintransient signal carrier includes an electrically erasable solid-statememory.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying of theintransient signal carrier includes erasing one or more blocks of datacontaining at least some of the non-selected installed soft assets. 6.The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more blocks of data that areerased are located in a first storage space in an electrically erasablesolid-state memory, and the first storage space becomes available forstorage of other data.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the pluralityof installed soft assets on the intransient signal carrier forms part ofa panoplex, wherein the non-selected soft assets form relicta, andwherein the panoplex further includes a first data structure havingdigital-asset-identification information and location informationconfigured to facilitate erasure of the relicta.
 8. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: providing an intransient signalcarrier having a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets, whereinthe prewritten plurality of installed soft assets constitutes a set ofchoices of soft assets from which a subset of the installed soft assetsthat are to be retained is chosen, wherein the plurality of installedsoft assets on the intransient signal carrier form part of a panoplex,and wherein the panoplex further includes a directory data structure ina location other than a location used by an operating system as adirectory; obtaining selection data distinguishing the subset ofinstalled soft assets that is to be retained from a subset that is notto be retained; and modifying the intransient signal carrier based onthe selection data, including writing the directory data structure tothe location used by the operating system for the directory such thaterased space is available in place of the non-selected subset ofinstalled soft assets that is not to be retained and the selected subsetof installed soft assets that is to be retained is available to an enduser as installed and substantially ready-to-use.
 9. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: providing an intransient signalcarrier having a prewritten plurality of installed soft assets, whereinthe prewritten plurality of installed soft assets constitute a set ofchoices of soft assets from which a subset of the installed soft assetsthat are to be retained are chosen, wherein the intransient signalcarrier further includes a first data structure, and wherein the firstdata structure includes directory information in a location other than alocation used by an operating system for a directory; obtainingselection data distinguishing the subset of installed soft assets thatis to be retained from a subset that is not to be retained; andmodifying the intransient signal carrier based on the selection data,including writing directory information to the location used by theoperating system for the directory such that erased space is availablein place of the non-selected subset of installed soft assets that is notto be retained and the selected subset of installed soft assets that areto be retained is available to an end user as installed andsubstantially ready-to-use.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein theintransient signal carrier further includes a first data structure, andwherein the first data structure includes a registry in a location otherthan a location used by an operating system as a registry.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the intransient signal carrier furtherincludes a first data structure, and wherein the first data structureincludes data indicating an order in which the soft assets wereinstalled.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the intransient signalcarrier further includes a first data structure, wherein thenon-selected soft assets form relicta, and wherein the first datastructure includes data indicating an order in which the relicta are tobe uninstalled.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the intransientsignal carrier includes a first end-user storage medium, and theproviding of the intransient signal carrier further comprises:connecting a first installation storage medium to a computer; installingthe plurality of installed soft assets onto the first installationstorage medium to create a first panoplex in which the plurality ofinstalled soft assets are substantially ready to use by the end user;copying the first panoplex to the first end-user storage medium in whichthe installed soft assets are substantially ready to use by the end useroperating a device that includes and uses the storage medium.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the copying of the first panoplex to thefirst end-user storage medium further comprises: copying the firstpanoplex from the first installation storage medium to a master storagemedium having at least one other panoplex stored thereon; and copyingthe first panoplex from the master storage medium to the first end-userstorage medium.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first panoplexfurther includes a directory data structure having identificationinformation and location information of the plurality of installed softassets, a registry data structure having operational informationnecessary to run a plurality of computer programs contained within theplurality of installed soft assets, and a gryphing-order data structurehaving information concerning an order for removing relicta informationfrom the directory data structure and the registry data structure. 16.An apparatus comprising: a functional container that includes: anend-user storage medium to which data can be written and from which datacan be read, and configured to retain the data, and further having aninterface operable to couple the storage medium to an end-userfunctional device; a file structure mediating logical information to andfrom physical locations within the storage medium; a collection ofindividually end-user-accessible pre-loaded soft assets stored on theend-user storage medium, wherein the end-user storage medium is not yetconnected to the end-user functional device; and wherein the storagemedium serves as both an inventory of selectable pre-loaded soft assetsand a vehicle to deliver and sideload the selected installed soft assetsto the end-user functional device.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16,wherein the storage medium has been gryphed and culled such that theselected installed soft assets are available for use by and for an enduser, and the non-selected soft assets are removed.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 17, further comprising a functional electronic device operativelycoupled to the functional container after the storage medium has beengryphed and culled, such that the device is customized and ready-to-use.19. An apparatus comprising: a new readable and writable gryphedend-user digital storage medium device containing a customized pluralityof user-specified installed soft assets selected from a set of softassets; wherein the gryphed end-user storage medium is not yet connectedto an end-user functional device, and residual indicia of other softassets that are in an erased state, wherein the other soft assets arealso selected from the set of soft assets.
 20. The apparatus of claim19, wherein the storage medium device provides a dispensing unit havinga pre-installed plurality of soft assets and including a computerprogram to transform the assets into a first subset that is dispensedand a second subset that is not dispensed.
 21. The method of claim 1,wherein the modifying of the intransient signal carrier such that erasedspace is available in place of non-selected installed soft assets isperformed before the intransient signal carrier is installed in anend-user's information processing device.
 22. The method of claim 1,wherein the modifying of the intransient signal carrier such that erasedspace is available in place of non-selected installed soft assets isperformed after the intransient signal carrier is installed in anend-user's information processing device.